Americans will cast their vote on November 5, and it’s apparent that the anticipated election is more important than deciding if the US will have its first female president or a second Donald Trump term. It’s about what it means for America’s human rights.
Since her entrance to the race in July, Kamala Harris has been leading polls. But, conservatives can’t seem to get enough of Trump’s innovative Project 2025. With the help of The Heritage Foundation, a conservative commission founded during the Nixon administration, and Paul Dans, the programs director, it plans to not only abolish the US Department of Education but also cut funds to the Affordable Care Act.
This directly affects abortion, a contentious topic which the Project plans to eliminate completely, by criminalising emergency contraception, and prosecuting those who provide or receive contraceptives such as abortion pills. Another contributor to the project, Robert Severino, recommends that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) update the public on fertility-awareness based methods of contraception with their plan to defund the Planned Parenthood programme. Alongside this, complete removal of protection over medical records that involves abortions from criminal investigations once the person crosses state lines.
Another one of its policies is to “maintain a biblically based, social science reinforced definition of marriage and family”. This would result in the termination of same-sex marriage, and protections against discrimination based on sexual and gender identity. There is also the possibility of firing any federal employees who have participated in any initiatives around critical race theory. Johnathon Berry, a Project 2025 contributor suggests that ‘The White House’s Gender Policy Council’ be disbanded. This could mean government agencies would be banned from using statistics on gender, race and ethnicity, changing the US Census Bureau completely. Berry says, “The goal here is to move towards colourblindness, and to recognise that we need to have laws and policies that treat people like full human beings, not reducible to categories, especially when it comes to race”.
The Project has been heavily criticised by both democrats and legal academics, claiming its risking authoritarianism and the merging of church and state. Donald Ayer, who served as an American attorney under the Bush administration has commented, “If Trump were to be elected and implement some of the ideas he is apparently considering, no one in this country would be safe”. Some conservatives have also opposed the plans. Reed Galen, a member of the PAC (Political Action Committee) which focuses on preventing the re-election of Donald Trump and Trump loyalists, said that, “Project 2025 is MAGA’s endorsed blueprint for turning America into an authoritarian state”. Even Trump himself has distanced himself from it, claiming in the ABC news Presidential debate that, “I have nothing to do with Project 2025”.
Despite Trump’s attempts to distance himself, Project 2025 will play a key role in the result.