The press has pointed to the near erasure of the word abortion from the new Republican platform as evidence that the mind and soul of the Republican party now reside in the body of Donald J Trump. The document omits the right’s top-priority goal of a federal abortion ban and replaces it with Trump’s preference to let the states do the dirty work. Missing too is the holy grail of the antiabortion movement: a “human life amendment,” which would extend to fetuses and embryos the constitutional protections that were seized from pregnant people when the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in June 2022.
The consensus is that the changes from the 2016 platform, which was used in the 2020 elections, to the 2024 version subordinate the Republican party’s long-held principles and strategies – not just on abortion but also on trade, entitlement cuts and same-sex marriage – to the transient political needs and desires of its leader.
On abortion, news outlets from CNN to Fox to Roll Call have called the shift a “softening” of the party’s stance.
Don’t be fooled. Apart from the fact that voters don’t read platforms and elected officials rarely abide by them, the “new” abortion position will make no practical or political difference.
First – if this doesn’t go entirely without saying – Trump’s word is as good as the paper he flushes down his golden toilet. If a Republican Congress handed a President Trump a federal ban, does anyone think he’d veto it? Trump doesn’t really care about abortion anyhow. His stated opinions have swung every which way, from “I’m very pro-choice” in 1999 to “God made the decision” to overturn Roe in 2022, not a US supreme court packed with the far-right justices he appointed.
Second, the court is already taking care of things. Yes, it rejected a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone – but did so only on the grounds that the plaintiffs, an ad hoc group of antiabortion medical professionals, did not have standing to sue. Public health and legal experts say that the ruling almost guarantees another challenge, this time with more carefully vetted plaintiffs. And state laws banning mifepristone are untouched.
The supreme court also left in place two FDA regulations loosening the prescription and use of mifepristone, but only while the regulations are under appeal. And if the appeal reaches the high court? This session, the majority declared itself the boss of the federal agencies. Should the anti-abortion activists challenge the FDA’s authority again, there’s a good chance they will prevail.
So far, neither judges no state lawmakers have succeeded in shutting down abortion access. In fact, the number of pregnancy terminations increased in 2023, after Roe’s undoing, thanks to telemedical providers prescribing and a global feminist underground sending pills into abortion deserts. Laws still protect these activities. Statutes in liberal states shield providers from prosecution by authorities in conservative states, and the fourth amendment protects first-class letters and packages from illegal search and seizure.
However, federal postal inspectors can get a warrant to open the mail if they have probable cause to believe the contents violate federal law. The 1873 Comstock Act prohibits the mailing of anything that can be used to cause an abortion. It is still on the books. The executive branch holds authority over the US Postal Service. With the president’s nod, the Postal Service could train its dogs to sniff out the little white pills and direct its enforcers to tear open parcels in search of contraband. US Customs is authorized to check international mail for prohibited items – whether that’s gold, fresh fruit, animal fur, or illegal drugs.
The 2024 Republican platform may be no more than a script for political theater. But, there’s another document – finally discovered by the media – that shows the party ain’t playing: Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s plan for transition to an extreme-right America under an imperial presidency. All the positions Trump finessed or “softened” in the platform are laid out in flagrant detail in the 900-page tome.
Trump has disavowed connection with it, while proudly owning the platform. “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and unlike our very well received Republican platform, had nothing to do with it,” he posted on Truth Social. But CNN found at least 140 people involved in Project 2025 who served in the Trump administration, including six cabinet members.
While peeved that the Republican platform committee flouted their input, antiabortion leaders have dismissed it as a temporary setback. “The 2024 platform is a decent statement of campaign priorities,” said Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, “but not necessarily the enduring principles of the party.”
Whoever ends up in the White House, the antis will not rest until every baby that can be born is born and anybody who gets in the way is punished – slandered, delicensed, sued, fined, imprisoned, even executed for homicide or, hardly least of all, forced to carry and bear a child they do not want.
Republican-dominated state legislatures have indicated their eagerness to enact the most stringent limitations and the harshest penalties. And because the supreme court has immunized presidents from criminal prosecution (with the insane proviso that they commit the crime as an official act), a second-term President Trump would be free to follow his instincts and impose his will over the bodies of women. That’s what he has always done. But this time he will be accountable to nobody.
Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books
