Project 2025, the 900-page conservative playbook for the next Republican president, issues an ultimatum for California: track and report abortion data to the federal government or risk losing billions in Medicaid funding for reproductive health.
California is one of only three states that do not report abortion data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Project 2025’s proposed federal mandate directly conflicts with the state’s strong protections for patient privacy and could dismantle the legal and ethical foundations that have made California a refuge for those seeking reproductive care.
The blueprint, crafted by Donald Trump allies and leaders in his first administration, clearly targets states with abortion protections like California, seeking the kind of data that could be used to target abortion-seekers or even criminally punish out-of-staters who come to the state for reproductive health services.
“Because liberal states have now become sanctuaries for abortion tourism, [the Department of Health and Human Services] should use every available tool, including the cutting of funds, to ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method,” reads the chapter on abortion reporting.
Roger Severino, who served as the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ director of the Office for Civil Rights under Trump, authored Project 2025’s abortion surveillance plan. He is now the vice president of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025. He declined an interview with CalMatters.
As Project 2025 and reproductive health have become major campaign themes, Trump continues to distance himself from the right-wing plan. He’s repeatedly called some of the project’s proposals “abysmal” and has said “I have no idea who is behind it.” Paul Dans, the Project 2025 director and a former top adviser in Trump’s administration, resigned from the Heritage Foundation in July after Trump began to disengage from the plan.
In yesterday’s presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris explicitly warned about Project 2025’s plans to monitor “your pregnancies, your miscarriages.”
On the stage, Trump denied supporting a national abortion ban, in part because the fall of Roe led to his desire for each state to implement its own policy. “This is an issue that’s torn our country apart for 52 years,” Trump said on the debate stage. “Every legal scholar, every Democrat, every Republican, liberal, conservative, they all wanted this issue to be brought back to the states where the people could vote. And that’s what happened.”
Harris’ home state has a long history of protecting reproductive rights. The state legalized abortion in 1967, six years before the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, and has since enacted numerous laws to ensure access to abortion care.
The California Constitution includes an explicit right to privacy, which has been interpreted by state courts to guarantee the right to choose an abortion.
California, along with Maryland and New Hampshire, does not require abortion providers to report patient data to the federal government, as Severino points out. The California Department of Public Health said just days after Roe v. Wade was overturned that it does not report abortion data to the federal government because it is not required to do so. The states that do collect data generally use it for public health analysis that can help improve abortion access by identifying gaps and needs….
From Cal Matters
Abortion data should always be made public so people can see how truly horrendous the statistics really are. End Abortion Now! Adoption is the option.
There are two good reasons for not reporting abortion procedures:
1) It is against California law
2) It is nobody’s business
We can be against abortion without taking away people’s civil rights.
Project 2025, written by extreme right-wing supporters of autocracy rather than democracy reads like the playbook of a devoted Marxist or Fascist. It calls for an end to our democracy. Mega supports it, Conservatives would not.
Bob One: California has a lot of unjust laws, that’s why thousands of people are leaving. Just ask Elon Musk? The plight of the unborn is everyone’s business. The real Marxists are now in power.
Say, what? Is California legally bound to report all other medical prodedures? A resounding Yes. The killing of unborn babies is a nasty business, and the morally bankrupt supporters and purveyors of abortion must keep those statistics hidden. Oh, and it is indeed our business because our tax dollars are being used to fund this atrocity in California.
No, Bob One. You missed the point. And as a follower of Christ— you cannot possibly support abortion– Child Murder— or any evil, manmade laws that God says “No” to. You must rise up for Christ, to valiantly, courageously fight such evil, Satanic, unjust, false laws. Child murder is a horrific mortal sin, before Almighty God. Project 2025 is 100% correct. All medical procedures must be carefully, lawfully verified and documented before the taxpayers’ dollars (in use of Medi-Cal, and other government-funded programs) — or patients’ private medical insurance providers– can cover the costs of the medical procedure they are being asked to pay for. That is standard procedure. You cannot be asked to pay for something that is illegal, or not properly verified and properly documented, in the medical world. If you fail to properly do this, you may be guilty of committing medical fraud and embezzlement of public funds– or guilty of fraudulent misuse of private medical insurance coverage. These California bad laws are a wrongful misuse of the Law– and a horror, before Almighty God! You cannot make up fraudulent laws to suit your own political and personal whims to sin– like immature, immoral, radical leftist lawmakers do, in the fraudulent, post-1960s filthy, sinful, leftist Death Culture world. These radical leftist, sinful California lawmakers fraudulently support sexual immorality and sin– “free” sex outside marriage, no consequences, birth control and child murder– abortion. This is horrific sin— and a horrific, fraudulent misuse of the Law. China, Russia, and many atheist Communist and radical extremist Muslim countries– like Afghanistan and Pakistan, etc. — often enact fraudulent, evil, unjust, false laws, to suit their evil political and radical Muslim extremist goals– if you lived in one of these countries, you would scream at many of the unjust laws of these extremely sinful governments! Look at poor Cardinal Zen, Jimmy Lai, and their excellent group, in jail, in China, persecuted for doing God’s work. Look at good Christians of all denominations, wrongfully harassed, persecuted and imprisoned, in Communist countries like China, and in Pakistan and other radical, extremist Muslim countries. Look at the false, divided Catholic Church in China– the authentic one is persecuted, underground, and the other is a fraud, Communist-controlled. Look at the evil, unjust, Marxist Ortega regime in Nicaragua, persecuting all Christians, especially the Catholic Church, jailing and expelling Catholic priests and Protestant missionaries, making evil, Satanic, fraudulent laws, to support their Satanic actions. And look at the valiant, courageous American Abolitionists, many of them devout Christians, who fought against slavery laws, and fought and gave their lives, to preserve the Union and abolish slavery, in the Civil War. We must do the same, in the Satanic, post-1960s Death Culture era, and fight for Christ, to restore Christian Morality and decency, in America– and end the unjust killing of God’s helpless, unborn children. The true concept of “freedom” is a noble one, established by God, in His well-ordered universe, as “freedom to do good”— upholding His morality, righteousness, and holiness– and requiring man to live rightly– as He has mandated. “Freedom” is not a two-year old, “do as I please,” lawless, selfish, disordered concept, an excuse for disobedience and rebellion, outside of the laws of Almighty God– as atheists, Communists, and lawless sinners guilty of sexual immorality, cheating, lying, harming others, dope peddling, robbery, rape, and murder live by, wrongfully.
Another big problem– an underage girl’s or an adult woman’s medical records should contain accurate information. Her doctor needs to know, if she comes to see him with any complaints, and she has had any previous live births, miscarriages or abortions– she must never lie. All of this can also be evidence in case of a lawsuit. And what if the patient has
serious medical complications, or even dies, during or after the abortion? What if the abortion is botched by an unscrupulous doctor who o should be legally caught, jailed, and prosecuted? Documentation is always a legal necessity, to protect patients, doctors and medical providers, and the public– and insurance providers.
As noted, why are other medical procedures reported to the state? Privacy of the individuals is respected, but the number and details of many procedures are required to be reported, appendectomies, for only one example. If this procedure did not involve killing a baby, it would be reported, as are COVID and other medical conditions.
Project 2025 has been the subject of much disinformation. I’ve read parts of it and you can read it yourself. It’s available free from the Heritage Foundation. Go to the link below to learn about and access it, if you’d like:
https://www.project2025.org/truth/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyN7X5KbGiAMVdS7UAR3-GhxlEAAYASAAEgJ0VPD_BwE
If any readers here have any objections to the document (after reading it), I’d sincerely like to know what those are.
I want my opinions and conscience informed and formed primarily by the teachings of the Church. Most of what it addresses, it seems, are matters of prudential judgment (about which Catholics might disagree in good conscience and without violating the moral teachings of the Church).
If my views aren’t those of Christ, I am the one who needs to change.
Recently, I read that as Florida’s six-weeks abortion ban went into effect on May 1, 2024, abortions dropped from 9,730 in April, 2024, to 5,630 in May, 2024, and then 5,200, in June, 2024 (Guttmacher Institute). The Guttmacher Institute estimated that there were approximately 179,660 abortions in California, in 2023. California has apparently not made a report to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) on abortion statistics, for the last reporting period. There is no law mandating that states report abortion data to the CDC nor to any other national source. Thus, unlike other important medical issues, there is no national repository of data, statistics and information available in a national source, on abortion. So many thousands of innocent, unborn American children are daily being senselessly killed! With very little medical supervision, monitoring and oversight! When is America ever going to wake up to this senseless, Satanic Holocaust, and put an end to it?
Abortion horrors: Florida has a good and decent Governor. If Florida can do it the rest of the country can too. If there’s a will there’s a way. End abortion now! Adoption is the option.
From an article in http://www.spiritdaily.com via Zenit News Mexican actor and activist Eduardo Verastegui says, former President Donald Trump has expressed interest in making a personal pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. The actor’s announcement came shortly after Trump posted an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe on his own social media accounts on September 8, offering birthday wishes to her.