Democratic Party - Democratic National Committee

01/08/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/08/2024 17:23

Trump and Vance’s Dystopian Project 2025 Agenda:“Orwellian Surveillance” for Women and Doctors Arrow

Trump-Vance Project 2025 Agenda Calls for Every Abortion, Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Incidental Pregnancy Loss from Medical Treatments Like Chemo to Be Reported to the Federal Government

DNC National Press Secretary Emilia Rowland released the following statement:

"Because of Trump, prosecutors looking to enforce draconian anti-abortion laws in the states are now free to go after reproductive health data in mobile apps. But Trump and Vance's Project 2025 agenda would go even further - calling for every abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth, and incidental pregnancy loss from medical treatments like chemo to be reported to the federal government under a Trump administration, tearing away health data privacy protections under HIPAA, and allowing states to surveil patients and doctors, monitor pregnancies, restrict women's freedom to travel for abortion care, and ultimately use health data against patients and providers in court. This isn't about policy, it's about control."

Read for yourself: Trump's extreme MAGA Project 2025 wants to roll back protections that narrow law enforcement's ability to procure private reproductive health information, and both Trump and Vance have suggested they're open to allowing states to surveil women's pregnancies.

HuffPost: "How A Trump-Vance Presidency Might Allow The Government To Monitor Pregnancies"

"There is evidence that, if elected, Trump and his vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), would permit or even encourage the type of Orwellian surveillance described in Project 2025."

Rolling Stone: "Trump and Vance Have Backed States That Want to Surveil Pregnant Women"

"Trump and his vice presidential pick are now both saying abortion should be left up to the states, even though they both previously signaled support for national bans. They have also, alarmingly, both suggested they would be OK with states moving to surveil women's pregnancies.

"In May, a host at WGAL, an NBC affiliate in Pennsylvania, noted to Trump that there were ads running that suggested he would support certain states with bans monitoring women's pregnancies. 'Well, that would be up to the states, again,' Trump responded…

"Vance, an Ohio senator, has gone further. Last summer, he signed onto a congressional letter calling on the Biden administration to withdraw a draft rule designed to prevent police in states with abortion bans from using personal health information to track and potentially charge people who travel to other states for abortion care."

Mother Jones: "Add to that his recent support for the use of patients' medical records by the police to investigate people who travel out of state for abortions."

Mandate for Leadership, Project 2025, p. 455, 456: "Comparisons between live births and abortion should be tracked across various demographic indicators to assess whether certain populations are targeted by abortion providers and whether better prenatal physical, mental, and social care improves infant outcomes and decreases abortion rates, especially among those who are most vulnerable."

Mandate for Leadership, Project 2025, p. 455: "Because liberal states have now become sanctuaries for abortion tourism, HHS 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."

Both JD Vance and Project 2025 have called on HHS to withdraw protections that narrowed the ability of law enforcement to procure private reproductive health information - in the Senate, Vance even signed onto a letter opposing the rule.

Mandate for Leadership, p. 497: "OCR should withdraw its Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidance on abortion. OCR should withdraw its June 2022 guidance that purports to address patient privacy concerns following the Dobbs decision but is actually a politicized statement in favor of abortion and against Dobbs. HIPAA covers patients in the womb, but this guidance treats them as nonpersons contrary to law. The guidance is unnecessary and contributes to ideologically motivated fearmongering about abortion after Dobbs."

Comments on Proposed Rule: HIPAA Privacy Rule To Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy: "We write to express our concern regarding the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed rule, 'HIPAA Privacy Rule To Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy,' 88 Fed. Reg. 23506 published on April 17, 2023 (the 'Proposed Rule'), and to urge you to withdraw it immediately.

"Abortion is not health care-it is a brutal act that destroys the life of an unborn child and hurts women. Congress did not authorize HHS to extend special provisions for abortion such as these under the guise of 'health care.' The Proposed Rule unlawfully thwarts the enforcement of compassionate laws protecting unborn children and their mothers, and directs health care providers to defy lawful court orders and search warrants.

"The Proposed Rule creates special protections for abortion that limit cooperation with law enforcement, undermine the ability to report abuse, restrict the provision of public health information, and erase the humanity of unborn children…

"Sincerely,… J.D. Vance United States Senator"

HHS Official Melanie Fontes Rainer: "If a person receives reproductive health care, such as a pregnancy test or treatment for an ectopic pregnancy, and that reproductive health care is lawful in the state where the care is received, the information about the care cannot be disclosed or used by the health care provider or health plan for an investigation, or to impose liability by law enforcement on the patient or the provider…

"No one should have to live in fear that their conversations with their doctor or that their medical claims data might be used to target or track them for seeking lawful reproductive health care."

Trump has endorsed allowing states to monitor pregnancies AND prosecute women who receive reproductive care.

HuffPost: "Trump Is Fine With States Monitoring Pregnant Women So They Don't Get Abortions"

The Hill: "Trump: It's up to states to monitor pregnancies, prosecute abortions"

Interviewer, TIME Magazine: "Do you think states should monitor women's pregnancies so they can know if they've gotten an abortion after the ban?"

Trump: "I think they might do that. Again, you'll have to speak to the individual states. Look, Roe v. Wade was all about bringing it back to the states. And that was a legal, as well as possibly in the hearts of some, in the minds of some, a moral decision. But it was largely a legal decision."

Interviewer: "Prosecuting women for getting abortions after the ban. But are you comfortable with it?"

Trump: "The states are going to say."

Trump: "There has to be some form of punishment [for women who have an abortion]."

Let's be clear: Trump and his anti-choice Project 2025 allies' agenda includes a national abortion ban, threatening IVF and contraception access, and allowing states to monitor women's pregnancies.

Rolling Stone: "Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill"

"The attacks on mifepristone and resurrection of Comstock stand out as particularly harmful proposals, but they are only two of the dozens of ways the Republicans behind Project 2025 envision restricting access to abortion and contraception if they win the White House next year. Elsewhere in the document, there are proposals to eliminate the morning-after pill from the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate under the rationale that it is a 'potential abortifacient.'"

Politico: "Since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos are children, the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups have been strategizing how to convince not just GOP officials but evangelicals broadly that they should have serious moral concerns about fertility treatments like IVF and that access to them should be curtailed."