Project 2025 is a far-right manifesto backed by former elected officials, world-renowned economists and veterans from four presidential administrations that looks to promote and instill conservative and Christian values into legislation and American life. The manifesto serves as a game plan for the next elected conservative president and highlights four broad priorities launched by the Heritage Foundation. It lays out hundreds of policy recommendations for the White House offices, cabinet departments, Congress and agencies. The policies will address topics ranging from government to family life to the economy.
Their first priority, named Promise #1, is meant to “Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children” (Roberts, 6). Promise #1 highlights the conservative party's top concerns including fatherless households. They cite that fatherless households are the main reason for poverty, crime, mental illness, teen suicide, substance abuse, church rejection and highschool dropouts in America. So how does “Project 2025” want to solve this crisis? By withdrawing the rights of women through the elimination of agencies and offices responsible for upholding civil rights. Proposed policies in the manifesto include aiming to “withdraw Medicaid funds for states that require abortion insurance or that discriminate in violation of the Weldon amendment” (Baker, 2024), audit states for compliance with the Hyde amendment, reduce abortion access and further prohibit the funding Planned Parenthood receives from Medicaid.
The project appears to address this issue with a plan to eliminate women's rights. Women may seek out an abortion for an array of reasons including financial (40%), timing (36%) and partner issues (31%). The policies presented in Project 2025 do nothing to address these underlying issues.
Economic concerns are the most common reasons for women seeking abortion. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average cost to raise a child is about $12,980 annually (a study done in 2015, not adjusted for inflation). Not only is it expensive to raise a child but having children may also provide financial setbacks considering there are no federally regulated and protected rights to maternity leave, no affordable healthcare and hardly any cheap daycare options.
Timing is the second biggest motivating factor for women to seek an abortion. The motherhood pay gap makes it nearly impossible for a woman to get ahead in school or her career with a child because although women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, they are still responsible for the majority of household responsibilities and child care with women comprising 50% of the child care vs men comprising 7% of the child care.
Partner and environmental issues are the third most common reason for a woman to seek an abortion. Intimate partner violence is involved in 6% - 22% of abortions. If conservatives would like to address the issue of fatherless households it would be best to address these issues as all three of these concerns are similar for those not interested in getting married. Women are expected to handle the majority of household chores, provide the majority of child care and bring home income. On top of this, domestic violence is still very present in our society.
If the goal is to “restore the family as the centerpiece of American life” and tackle fatherless households, the manifesto should prioritize addressing barriers against motherhood. This would include providing solutions to the rising expenses of rent and daycare, adopting some form of maternity leave, highlighting and addressing domestic violence issues in society and addressing the gender pay gap. Limiting abortion will not solve the fatherless epidemic considering 85% of abortions done in the U.S. are done by single women. Concluding, the project looks to enforce misogynistic extremist views hidden under the guise of religious and conservative values but fails to address the underlying issues of fatherlessness and instead places blame solely on women.
Acknowledgment: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author.
Sources:
Baker, Carrie N. “Project 2025: The Right’s Dystopian Plan to Dismantle Civil Rights and What It Means for Women.” Justice and Law, National, Politics , Ms. Magazine, 8 Feb. 2024, msmagazine.com/2024/02/08/project-2025-conservative-right-wing-trump-woke/.
Roberts, Kevin D, et al. “Mandate for Leadership The Conservative Promise.” The Heritage Foundation, 2023.