Key Point: “Anti-abortion advocates say having allies in the cabinet will set the tone for abortion policies in the administration. … Trump’s agency picks could make changes that would have nationwide implications on abortion access.”

NOTUS: Trump Says He Won’t Sign a Federal Abortion Ban. His Administration Has Ways to Restrict Abortion Anyway.

By Oriana González

• Anti-abortion advocates say having allies in the cabinet will set the tone for abortion policies in the administration.
• Trump’s agency picks could make changes that would have nationwide implications on abortion access.
• Conservatives want a Trump-appointed attorney general to enforce the Comstock Act as a national abortion ban. Bondi — who has direct ties to anti-abortion groups and has defended one of Florida’s anti-abortion laws as the state’s former attorney general — could withdraw a 2022 memo issued under the Biden DOJ essentially declining to enforce the law and instead issue new guidance on how federal prosecutors should interpret it.
• Bondi will also likely drop lawsuits started by the Biden administration to protect abortion access. Currently there are federal cases in Idaho and Texas over the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known as EMTALA, which current Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said protects abortions in emergencies.
• Sen. James Lankford, who opposes abortion rights, told reporters that in his meeting, Kennedy “was pretty clear that the first Trump administration HHS was a pro-life entity, and it will be again.”
• As health secretary, Kennedy could rescind the Biden-era guidance on EMTALA protecting abortion access in emergencies. 
• After Trump nominated Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state, anti-abortion advocates heaped praise on him. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said she had “every confidence he will continue to champion policies that uphold … the right to life.” Similarly, the National Right to Life Committee called Rubio a “pro-life champion.” 
• Under the Biden administration, the Defense Department adopted a policy to cover travel and transportation costs for service members looking to access an abortion. Republicans, conservatives and anti-abortion advocates oppose the measure, and Hegseth called it a “logic of evil” in his book “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.”
• Trump nominated former Rep. Doug Collins, a staunch anti-abortion advocate, as secretary of veterans affairs. He sponsored and voted for legislation to ban federal funding from being used to cover abortion costs during his time in the House.

The 19th: How Trump nominees could make Project 2025 a reality

By Amanda Becker

• Trump picked major architects of the Heritage Foundation’s vision for key posts in his next administration, setting the stage for them to implement a conservative Christian agenda that has the potential to reshape the federal government and redefine rights long held by all Americans, though likely to disproportionately impact women, LGBTQ+ people and vulnerable populations like the elderly and disabled. 
• One of these architects is Russell Vought, whom Trump has again tapped to lead his Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, an under-the-radar entity to most Americans that wields immense influence over the federal government by crafting the president’s budget. If confirmed by the Senate, a very likely outcome, Vought will be optimally positioned to inject Project 2025’s priorities — many of which reflect his career-long push to dismantle programs for low-income Americans and expand the president’s authority — across the federal agencies and departments that OMB oversees. 
• But of the more than 350 people who contributed to Project 2025, at least 60 percent are linked to the incoming president, according to a list of contributors and their ties reviewed by The 19th.