How Project 2025 Impacts Mothers

You’ve probably seen a lot of memes and infographics about Project 2025 floating around.  So what is it?  Over 100 conservative groups spearheaded the development of a 900 page plan to hit the ground running on day 1 of Trump’s second term.  The plan details hundreds of policies, but how does this impact core issues affecting mothers?  Let’s break it down:    

On Child Care:

The plan does not call for increasing access to affordable child care and is silent on if the Trump Administration will address the child care crisis. However, it calls to eliminate the Head Start program, a high-quality early education program for about 750,000 low-income children. 

How will this impact you? 

Many cities that offer Pre-K actually thoughtfully commingle funding for Head Start with local funding and use the Head Start funding as a foundation for city-wide Pre-K programs.  In many locations eliminating Head Start may mean that local Pre-K programs will serve significantly fewer children and lack the oversight to ensure certain high-quality measures are met.  Similarly, Project 2025 calls to eliminate the Department of Education.  Many states and localities use funding from the Department to support states fund education programs, including Pre-K and Kindergarten, especially for States that do not have compulsory Kindergarten, as well as before- and after-care programs.  

On Paid Leave:

Project 2025 does not call on Congress to authorize this benefit nor did it detail any plan to encourage employers to provide paid leave.  To date, all paid leave proposals have all depended on the Social Security Administration or the U.S. Department of Labor to administer the program.  Project 2025 proposes to reduce the size of these agencies, which will effectively make it more difficult to create and administer new programs (if Congress authorizes them in the first place).  

On Maternal Health:

Project 2025 details plans to eliminate or reduce the few supports pregnant and postpartum people have, including access to mental health services, drastic cuts to Medicaid, and limiting access to contraceptives.  Project 2025 lays out details to eliminate or reduce reproductive health, including ways to claw back FDA-approval of some drugs and enact a nationwide abortion ban.

On Moms:

The plan focuses on developing and maintaining healthy marriages and condemns divorce, same-sex marriages, and single moms.  Project 2025 would focus social safety net resources to promote marriage, healthy family formation, and abstinence.

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