Don’t be fooled. Not for a moment.
JD Vance and Trump are suddenly and desperately trying to run away from their extreme positions on abortion and reproductive freedom.
But not only does Project 2025 propose a host of anti-abortion policies, and not only does Trump brag about eliminating Roe v. Wade, Trump himself openly embraces one of the most extreme and far-reaching anti-abortion views out there.
Project 2025:
To start, the HHS Section of Project 2025 is crystal clear—its mission is to protect life from “Day 1” of conception, endangering not just abortion access, but IVF and forms of contraception as well.
And then it specifically bans medical abortions, the shipping of medicines (using a law from the 1870s), defunds Planned Parenthood, attacks what it calls “abortion tourism,” (clearly intending to stop travel for care), calls for tracking abortions in states, and other steps.
I review a lot more of this in a post from early in the summer.
“Fetal Personhood”
But if you think all this is bad, wait until you see what the most extreme anti-abortion right wingers are now calling for. They call it the “fetal personhood” theory. And it’s basically the belief that the Constitution itself (the XIV Amendment) protects life at the moment of conception.
Which means that you don’t even need a national abortion ban enacted through legislation—it could happen simply with Clarence Thomas and 4 of his buddies declaring that they agree with this theory in an opinions. (And of course, there are close ties to this theory and the Federalist Society which has taken over so much of the federal judiciary).
And that would mean a national ban on abortion and IVF without one vote of Congress or any action by the president.
It would happen by Court ruling.
This would also allow 5 Justices to overturn state decisions (including by voters) to enshrine reproductive freedom into their Constitutions.
Far right groups have pushed this far more extreme theory for years. So why do I bring it up now?
Because this year, the RNC embraced it as part of its platform.
And those far right anti-abortion extremists celebrated it as a major victory.
Because it was a major victory—for them!
They know exactly what this does:
And while these far-right figures suggest that this language has always been part of the Republican platform, that is not true. This was a coup because this is new.
Just look at the 2016 RNC platform , which says: “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.”
The 2024 platform does not say this—because the RNC is now embracing the theory that the Fourteenth Amendment already says this! (Therefore, no new amendment is needed, so they no longer call for one).
That is a huge shift, which is why Ralph Reed and others were so excited.
The “Trump Republican Platform”
But the embrace of the theory didn’t stop with Ralph Reed or the RNC.
Who else is proudly touting this extreme platform?
Who includes it on HIS website?
Who lends his own name to it?
Trump himself.
He even calls it the “Trump Republican Platform.”
And when you click the link on Trump’s website to see that “Trump Republican Platform,” it takes you to another page of that website. And when you scroll down on that page to Page 15, you find the Constitutional “fetal personhood” language staring you right in the face.
Here you go:
So it’s not only Ralph Reed and the far right embracing this rogue and extreme theory which would ban abortion and IVF nationwide without even a law being passed…
It’s Donald Trump himself. Sending as clear a signal as can be to a key part of his base.
Which means what JD Vance said the other day is nonsense to get through an election. And what Trump said yesterday in Florida (about the Florida ballot initiative) conflicts with the very platform Trump names after himself on his own website. Which is why he is already walking back those comments.
And rather than simply running with Trump and Vance lies, the press should be asking them why they are embracing a national abortion and IVF ban on their own website.
There are receipts for all of this.
To see them, and read more about how Project 2025 is a threat to abortion access and IVF, go HERE.
To read more about Trump’s “fetal personhood theory,” and how it’s intimately tied to the Federalist Society, go HERE.
Bottom line: Don’t fall for their desperate, last minute shifts. Or the nonsense that they’ve never heard of Project 2025.
The entire movement backing them has its eyes on a big prize. And Trump is signaling to them exactly what he will do.
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