VP Kamala Harris says Trump and Project 2025 threaten Michiganders’ rights

Ex-President Donald Trump is trying to soften his stance on abortion. But Republicans still have plans to chip away at reproductive rights, Vice President Kamala Harris warned. 

KALAMAZOO—Vice President Kamala Harris is urging Michiganders to defend their reproductive rights at the polls in November by voting for Democrats—or else risk losing access to abortion when ex-President Donald Trump arrives back in the White House.

“We believe in freedom from the government telling us what to do about matters of the heart and home. We believe in the right of people to make basic decisions, like when and if to start a family,” Harris said. “This is not a time to throw up our hands. It’s time to roll up our sleeves.”

Harris joined a panel discussion at the Air Zoo Aerospace and Science Museum in Kalamazoo on Wednesday, marking her fourth visit to Michigan this year. She focused largely on the looming threat that another Trump presidency would pose to reproductive rights across the country—including in Michigan, where those rights are protected by the state Constitution.

“In the midst of those who are trying to take individual freedoms, including the power to make basic decisions about your own life, we should remember the power of the people to make a decision about who sits in these offices,” Harris said. “We should not become dispirited.”

Here’s the Deal:

In the aftermath of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade (and the constitutional right to abortion) in 2022, 21 states have banned or restricted the procedure—including some states that now prohibit abortion after just six weeks, before many women even know they’re pregnant.

Michiganders have protected abortion access by passing a ballot initiative to add abortion rights into the state Constitution. State legislation passed by Democrats has also expanded access.

But if Trump and anti-abortion Republicans manage to take back control of the federal government in 2025, it will lead to sweeping, nationwide restrictions on abortion that would override those protections in Michigan, Harris warned during this week’s visit to Kalamazoo.

“[Trump] has told us over and over again who he is on this subject. Now, well, there’s a bit of gaslighting going on,” Harris said. “Now, there are 21 Trump abortion bans in 21 states.”

This, Harris said, is why Michiganders should be on alert about Trump. 

“I think that most of us agree that we shouldn’t allow supposed leaders to do things that hurt people. There’s something very basic about this,” Harris said. “Everybody better watch out about what other freedoms you’re taking for granted. … We should remember the power of the people to make a decision about who sits in these offices. We should not become dispirited.”

‘A Bit of Gaslighting’

Trump has repeatedly bragged about appointing three ultra-conservative justices to the Supreme Court with the specific intent of overturning Roe. He has also privately told his advisers that he would sign a federal law to prohibit abortion after 16 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions only in cases of rape or if the procedure is necessary to save the mother’s life.

“Lives are at stake. Lives have been lost as a result of what has been happening in state after state. This is serious,” US Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) told the crowd in Kalamazoo. “We did the right thing in Michigan. … But all of that goes away with a national abortion ban.”

In recent weeks, with polls showing access to reproductive healthcare is wildly popular among voters, Trump has tried to soften his hardline stance on the issue. Ahead of this week’s Republican National Convention, for instance, Trump said he now backs a leave-it-to-the-states approach, as well as a new party platform that no longer calls for any federal limits on abortion (even though one of the platform’s authors later suggested a nationwide ban was possible). 

But that change doesn’t mean a federal ban is actually off the table, Harris warned this week. 

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 for a second Trump term also includes a detailed, 900-page blueprint for how a conservative federal government could still work to criminalize and ban abortion and birth control nationwide—including without passing any new federal laws at all.

Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, recently claiming he has “no idea who is behind it.” But in reality, Trump has had close ties to many of its leaders—including Paul Dans, who served in the Trump administration as Chief of Staff at the US Office of Personnel Management. In an interview last year, Dans said Trump is “very bought in” to Project 2025.

Six of Trump’s former Cabinet secretaries, four people Trump nominated as ambassadors, and at least 140 people who worked in his administration have reportedly worked on Project 2025. 

Rights at Risk in Michigan

Harris also invited a former Trump staffer to clear up some misconceptions on the issue—including about whether Michigan’s constitutional protections would make a difference. 

“I can tell you as a former official in the Trump Pence administration, the Project 2025 plans for a second Trump term are very real,” said Olivia Troye, a former national security advisor for the Trump administration who joined Harris in Kalamazoo on Wednesday. “Project 2025 would ban abortion nationwide—even without the help of Congress, including right here in Michigan.”

Project 2025 calls for the US Department of Justice—under Trump—to start enforcing the Comstock Act of 1873. That old federal law bans the mailing of “anything designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion,” which could be interpreted to include medical instruments.

Another key part of the plan involves ending insurance coverage for reproductive care—including blocking the Department of Veterans Affairs from offering abortions to veterans, prohibiting the disbursement of Medicaid funds to states that require insurers to cover abortions, and cutting off funding to hospitals that perform abortions, even to save the life of the mother.

“It outlines plans to criminalize providers for sending or receiving medication abortion in the mail. It talks about tracking miscarriages and reversing protections for a woman’s right to emergency abortion care,” Troye said. “The plan even outlines policies to restrict access to contraception, including allowing employers to deny workers access to birth control coverage.”

She added: “When I was in the Trump-Pence administration, I saw a draft of one of these executive orders that’s referenced in Project 2025. It was being written back then. I was warned to keep my head down to be careful and not say anything about it, and that hopefully I would be OK. I know the authors of this plan because I worked with them. I was in cabinet and policy meetings with them. I’m here because I refuse to stay silent. No matter how hard Trump tries to distance himself from this plan, I can tell you his allies wrote it and he will implement it.”

Voting for Freedom

The latest Republican Party platform has also been criticized for being even more radical than years past—specifically because it alludes to “fetal personhood,” a concept which has become popular in Republican-led states (like Alabama) as a legal tool to restrict reproductive rights. 

In contrast, Harris emphasized that Democrats would work to restore federal protections for abortion that were lost in Roe’s overturn, as well as work to protect access to a broader range of reproductive health care, including IVF.

“Whenever it was on the ballot, the American people voted for freedom. This is a very serious, pivotal, foundational, issue,” Harris said. “This is where the power is with the people. Joe Biden has been very clear. If there was any attempt at a national abortion ban, he would veto it.”

Harris also called out US Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s vice presidential running mate, for previously supporting a national abortion ban and voting against federal legal protections for IVF treatment.

“The truth of the matter is JD Vance and Donald Trump are wrong for America,” Stabenow added. “We’ve got to make sure that Donald Trump gets nowhere near the Oval Office again.”

READ MORE: John James skips over his anti-abortion record in RNC speech

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