As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis uses taxpayer funds to advocate against a grassroots, democratic initiative to restore reproductive rights in Florida after Donald Trump paved the way for them to be ripped away, DNC Spokesperson Maddy Mundy issued the following statement calling DeSantis out for using Trump’s Project 2025 playbook: 

“Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda promises to give Trump virtually unchecked power to control our daily lives as he pursues his dangerous, anti-freedom agenda to ban abortion, monitor pregnancies, and rip away access to reproductive care from contraception to reproductive health care. Just last week, Trump, a Florida resident, reaffirmed for voters exactly where he stands – stating he’ll vote against an amendment to repeal Florida’s extreme abortion ban he made possible. Now, MAGA Governor Ron DeSantis is taking a page from Trump’s Project 2025 playbook: attempting to use the power of the state to undermine the pro-reproductive rights initiative altogether by deploying state resources to intimidate ballot petitioners and advocate against reproductive rights. This is Trump and MAGA Republicans’ Project 2025 vision: weaponize the government to attack our most fundamental freedoms. Extremists like Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump aren’t fit to lead. This November, voters will make that clear when they reject Trump’s Project 2025 agenda and elect Vice President Harris and Governor Walz – the only pro-freedom, pro-democracy candidates in this race.” 

Ron Desantis is using state resources in an attempt to undermine the passage of Amendment 4, which would restore Floridians’ reproductive rights after Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade.

Axios: “The DeSantis administration is escalating its war on Amendment 4, using state agencies to combat the abortion rights referendum on November’s ballot.”

Tampa Bay Times: “The officer’s visit appears to be part of a broad — and unusual — effort by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to inspect thousands of already verified and validated petitions for Amendment 4 in the final two months before Election Day.”

Miami Herald: “DeSantis and his allies have also tried to scare voters, claiming Amendment 4 would allow ‘abortions up to the time of birth.’ The measure would only allow abortions after viability ‘when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.’”

Florida Politics: “Is Gov. Ron DeSantis going too far in trying to defeat an amendment to restore abortion access?”

Trump’s Project 2025 agenda would give him unprecedented executive power to implement his extreme, anti-abortion plans and attack those who fight back. 

New York Times: “Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands. […]

“Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.” 

Washington Post: “Trump says on Univision he could weaponize FBI, DOJ against his enemies”

“In public, Trump has vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to ‘go after’ Biden and his family. The former president has frequently made corruption accusations against them that are not supported by available evidence.

“To facilitate Trump’s ability to direct Justice Department actions, his associates have drafted plans to dispense with 50 years of policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations. Critics have called such ideas dangerous and unconstitutional.”

HuffPost: “There is evidence that, if elected, Trump and his vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), would permit or even encourage the type of Orwellian surveillance described in Project 2025. For one, Trump has already expressed clear disinterest in preventing conservative states from enacting draconian policies on abortion and pregnancy.”

Rolling Stone: “Elsewhere, Severino complains that the CDC’s ‘abortion surveillance’ system is ‘woefully inadequate,’ and proposes turning the agency into a kind of snitch network that would collect data about who had abortions and where — and punish any states that refuse to share that information. ‘Because liberal states have now become sanctuaries for abortion tourism, HHS should use every available tool, including the cutting of funds, to ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method,’ Severino writes.”

Trump’s Project 2025 agenda would rip away Americans’ basic freedoms by banning abortion nationwide and punishing women who get an abortion.

The Guardian: “Project 2025 takes direct aim at abortion pills, indicates that fetuses should have legal rights, and seeks to expand ‘surveillance’ of abortion while eliminating government support for the procedure.”

Rolling Stone: “Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill”

“GOP operatives have already crafted an expansive blueprint, 887 pages long, laying out in painstaking detail how they intend to govern, including plans to leverage virtually every arm, tool and agency of the federal government to attack abortion access.”

Politico: “As president, Trump enacted several policies that made it more difficult for people, particularly the working class and the poor, to obtain contraception… Conservative allies want to reimpose those policies and go further if he wins in November. Their ‘Project 2025’ blueprint includes proposals to require coverage of natural family planning methods and remove requirements that insurance cover certain emergency contraception.”

Rolling Stone: “Trump Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide: Report”

Trump: “There of course remains a vital role for the federal government in protecting unborn life. And it’s very important.” 

Forbes: “JD Vance And Project 2025 Want To Use This 19th Century Law To Ban Abortion—Without Congress”

Washington Post: “Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion pills”

Vox: “Vance is on record supporting these [Project 2025] ideas. Last year, he signed a letter demanding that the Justice Department prosecute physicians and pharmacists ‘who break the Federal mail-order abortion laws.’”

CNN: “JD Vance said in 2022 he ‘would like abortion to be illegal nationally’”