written 21 July, 2024
published 28 July, 2024
At some point we will view extreme wealth as a hording/addiction disorder, much like seeing a 500 pound person. "Too Much, and Never Enough" is Mary Trump's book about her uncle Donald. But, in our culture of personality, the wealthy are worshipped and have traditionally dominated the GOP agenda, despite having unpopular goals. Social justice progress in the 60's and 70's prompted GOP alignment with "Christian" conservatives, specifically around the issue of abortion. This resulted in a decades long project to stack the Supreme Court, and in 2022, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion was reversed.
Much to the GOP surprise, this reversal was not popular with 70 percent of the population. Trying to distance themselves, they shifted the rhetoric to a States Rights issue. However, since 2022, all 7 states that had abortion on the ballot legalized it, bringing the total to 29. 2 more of the currently limited or banned states will vote in November. Idaho, typical of those with an abortion ban, has lost 22 percent of their obstetricians, and 3 hospitals have closed their labor and delivery departments. Most medical students say they won't practice in states with abortion bans. But the GOP, driven by a self-righteous agenda, ignores this and pushes ahead anyway.
Project 2025 is a set of administrative actions the president can take unilaterally, without regard for Congress, individual state decisions, or voter's desires. The section on Reproductive Rights will remove any mention of abortion from all government laws, policies, and regulations. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts writes that a pro-life administration starts by removing the terms “abortion, reproductive health, and reproductive rights, out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, and legislation that exists.”
The 1873 Comstock Act, named after Anthony Comstock, a devout Protestant activist who opposed women suffragettes, is still on the books. It criminalizes the involvement of the United States Postal Service in conveying "abortion-related" material. Using the Comstock Act, sales of mifepristone, which is used in over 50 percent of abortions these days, will be tracked and criminalized, effecting a national ban on at-home abortions.
The Department of Health and Human Services will redefine Medicaid to avoid providing reproductive health care and penalize providers who do. States will be allowed to defund Planned Parenthood in their state Medicaid plans, and disqualify providers of elective abortions. Medicaid funding will be withdrawn from states that require abortion insurance.
Abortion access is currently allowed at VA hospitals, in some circumstances. The Department of Defense allows abortion for servicemembers. Hospitals are required to offer abortions in medical emergencies regardless of state bans. All these will be reversed.
Project 2025 will reinstate a longtime Republican policy goal, barring nongovernmental organizations receiving U.S. aid from providing abortion services or advocating for legal abortion. Title X, a federal Family Planning Program, provides low-cost contraception, STD screenings, and prenatal care to low-income people, and has never been used for abortion services. Project 2025 will eliminate these services.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will cancel programs that are deemed "pro-abortion". Based on the contested religious theory that life begins at conception, the CDC will “eliminate programs that do not respect human life”, and pivot from "abortion as health care” to “research that supports pro-life policies."
Project 2025 is anti-surrogacy, claiming that “all children have a right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them” and aims to end all fetal cell research to “ensure that abortion and embryo-destructive related research become both fully obsolete and ethically unthinkable.” This includes In Vitro Fertilization, a common aid for infertile couples.
Religious and moral exemptions to the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act would be reinstated, allowing coverage denial of any kind of contraception. Instead, education on “fertility awareness-based” methods of contraception and family planning (charting ovulation, and avoiding sexual activity) would become mandatory. Health Resources & Service Administration guidelines would eliminate support of condoms because they are not a “women’s” preventative service.
In their arrogance, the GOP is convinced abortion is a passing phase, just a "woman's issue". Personal empowerment is to be subverted to intensive, pseudo-religious, governmental intrusion. If you have a mother, wife, sister, or daughter, or are a woman yourself, get educate about Project 2025. Decide if that is the world you want. If not, talk to everyone you know about Project 2025, so we all see what is coming, and vote Harris for president!
