Project 2025 and reproductive rights drive Florida voters to the polls

While the Roe v Wade decision clamped down on women’s rights, Project 2025 promises to go even further.

We asked our newsletter readers and our social media followers to tell us what’s motivating them to vote this November, and two issues came up time and time again: reproductive rights and Project 2025.

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, it had a profound impact on abortion laws and women’s rights. In the first few months after Roe was overturned, 18 states banned or severely restricted abortion. As a result, one in three women now live in states where abortion is not accessible, according to Planned Parenthood.

Florida is one of those states. On May 1, 2024, a six-week abortion ban with statutory exceptions replaced the 15-week ban that had been in effect since July 2022, shortly after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

So it comes as little surprise that when we asked our readers what was driving them to the polls, their answers were to the point and unwavering.

“Women’s uteruses,” Michelle Marrero Williams wrote on Instagram.

While there are exceptions to the ban for cases of rape, incest, and human trafficking, as well as to save the life of the mother or prevent “a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment,” some doctors are still reluctant to provide abortion care even in those exceptional cases. That’s because many doctors say the law isn’t clear, and if they provide an abortion that is not allowed they could face felony criminal charges, according to NPR.

“Why the focus on abortion? Because it is literally life or death for some women. It can be the difference between having a family and never having a family if you can’t get efficient abortion care when a complication arises. It can be the difference between a 10-year-old victim of incest birthing her new sister or going into junior high school,” Daria Morgendorffer wrote on Instagram.

Another user on Instagram echoed the sentiment. “Project 2025 and women’s reproductive health care,” Plumjade1 wrote.

And that brings us to the other issue on a lot of voters’ minds these days: Project 2025.

While the Roe v Wade decision clamped down on women’s rights, Project 2025 promises to go even further. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “Project 2025 is a federal policy agenda and blueprint for a radical restructuring of the executive branch authored and published by former Trump administration officials in partnership with The Heritage Foundation, a longstanding conservative think tank that opposes abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants’ rights, and racial equity.”

Project 2025 would have a far-reaching impact on numerous aspects of daily life in the US: from the economy and reproductive rights, to education, health care, and the environment. It would dismantle our country’s system of checks and balances, and give more control to politicians, judges, and corporations.

“Project 2025 will put us back in colonial times when women had no rights or say in anything. That is not an America I care to live in. The America I see has leaders who we are proud to look up to, not people who have to constantly hide what they do. We want leaders who support our social programs, not want to disband them. Leaders who care about the people they govern, not just lust for power and give breaks to companies that pay them off with bribes,” Floricua newsletter subscriber William von Zangenberg wrote in an email.

Here are a few ways Project 2025 would negatively impact Floridians:

• Under the plan, a middle-class family of four in Florida would see a tax increase of $2,587 per year, while households reporting more than $10 million in income would get a $1.5 million annual tax cut.
• Project 2025 would eliminate Head Start, which provides access to no-cost child care— among other services—for 44,980 low-income children in Florida.
• Student loan borrowers enrolled in existing income-driven repayment (IDR) plans would see their payments increase.
• Women in Florida would lose guaranteed access to free emergency contraception medications.
• The project eliminates the U.S. Department of Education, including Title I, which provides funds to schools serving low-income students. 

“Project 2025 sounds like a plan to create a dystopian state, with more inequality than ever, especially for women,” newsletter subscriber Yaritza Santos said in an email. “Everyone needs to inform themselves before voting.”

RELATED: Inside Project 2025’s Secret Training Videos