{"id":3200,"date":"2024-08-22T13:39:33","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T13:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/?p=3200"},"modified":"2024-08-22T13:39:33","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T13:39:33","slug":"project-2025-would-recast-hhs-as-the-federal-department-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/?p=3200","title":{"rendered":"Project 2025 Would Recast HHS as the Federal Department of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It has become a rhetorical theme for Democrats working to hold on to the White House: Allies of former president\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a><\/strong>, they say, want to infuse conservative ideals into how the federal government does business.<\/p>\n

That vision is outlined in the\u00a0Project 2025<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cMandate for Leadership<\/a>,\u201d a 900-page blueprint produced by the conservative\u00a0Heritage Foundation<\/strong>\u00a0and other conservative organizations as a guide for the next administration.<\/p>\n

Although\u00a0Trump has repeatedly said<\/a>\u00a0Project 2025 has no place in his campaign, Democrats keep bringing it up. On each night of the Democratic National Convention so far, speakers have invoked Project 2025, with Sen.\u00a0Bernie Sanders<\/strong>\u00a0(I-Vt.) calling it \u201cradical\u201d; Colorado Gov.\u00a0Jared Polis\u00a0<\/strong>(D) holding up a bound copy of the \u201cMandate for Leadership\u201d and\u00a0calling it<\/a>\u00a0Trump\u2019s \u201croad map to ban abortion in all 50 states\u201d; and comedian\u00a0Kenan Thompson\u00a0<\/strong>highlighting its call to use the 19th-century\u00a0Comstock Act<\/a>\u00a0to block the mailing of abortion pills.<\/p>\n

Among Project 2025\u2019s proposals are plans for federal health policy.<\/p>\n

For instance, the\u00a0Department of Health and Human Services\u00a0<\/strong>would adopt a staunch antiabortion stance, and federal approval for one commonly used abortion drug could be revisited and potentially withdrawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbortion,\u201d \u201creproductive health\u201d and any other term \u201cused to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights\u201d would be removed from every federal rule, regulation, grant or piece of legislation.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/strong>\u00a0would research abortion risks and complications. And HHS would be recast as the Department of Life, underscoring a new Christian nationalist focus.<\/p>\n

Although Trump has repeatedly denied that the document will inform his White House if he wins in November, Democrats\u2019 focus on Project 2025 will probably continue beyond the convention, in part because some of its proposals, including abortion restrictions, poll poorly for him and other Republican candidates.<\/p>\n

Support for abortion access is growing.\u00a0Sixty-one percent<\/strong>\u00a0of adults want their state to allow legal abortion for any reason,\u00a0according to a poll<\/a>\u00a0conducted in June by\u00a0the Associated Press<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0University of Chicago<\/strong>\u2019s NORC, which provides social research.<\/p>\n

Vice President\u00a0Kamala Harris<\/strong>\u2019s\u00a0campaign says<\/a>\u00a0Project 2025 shows \u201cthey\u2019ll implement a 50-state \u2018backdoor ban\u2019 on abortion \u2014 without Congress \u2014 and jail health care providers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abortion rights groups are also using Project 2025 to say Trump would endanger access to abortion. The former president has said abortion issues should be decided by states.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so focused on educating voters about 2025. It\u2019s an extreme ban,\u201d said\u00a0Julie Lewis<\/strong>, director of public policy at\u00a0Planned Parenthood Federation of America<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Heritage report, a version of which has been produced roughly every four years since the 1980s, has had considerable sway on GOP presidents. Former president\u00a0Ronald Reagan<\/strong>\u00a0adopted about\u00a060 percent<\/strong>\u00a0of the recommendations in a Heritage guide. Trump did the same in his presidency.<\/p>\n

As Election Day approaches, Trump continues to try to distance himself from the document, and its authors say he wasn\u2019t involved. A number of high-ranking officials from his administration, though, were. His running mate, Sen.\u00a0JD Vance<\/strong>\u00a0of Ohio, wrote the foreword to a yet-to-be-released book by\u00a0Kevin Roberts<\/strong>, who is president of Heritage.<\/p>\n

Roger Severino<\/strong>, vice president of domestic policy at Heritage, who wrote the HHS chapter in the Project 2025 blueprint, ran the agency\u2019s Office for Civil Rights during Trump\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

Severino pushed back on Democratic claims that the document would ban medication abortion: \u201cIt\u2019s a lie, plain and simple,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n


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