Reader Question: What Does Project 2025 Say About Birth Control?

What Christian Nationalists endorse reveals their tactical end game to ban birth control (Scroll to the end to listen)

Many thanks to Deepak Puri for including our questions for political candidates who profess to be Christians at The Democracy Labs.

We had a lot of good discussions in last Friday’s Ask Me Anything for paid subscribers covering a variety of Project 2025-related topics. Today, I’m answering one question from that private thread.

Reader Question: What does Project 2025 say about birth control? - Julie Duggan

Photo by Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition on Unsplash

Project 2025 endorses one form of birth control: Fertility Awareness Methods. These methods include the Temperature Method, the Cervical Mucus Method, and the Calendar Method. They can be used individually but are anywhere from 77-98% effective when used together. (Source: Planned Parenthood)

Let’s take a look at how Project 2025 discusses these methods.

Expand inclusion of fertility awareness–based methods and supplies to family planning in the women’s preventive services mandate. The ACA requires coverage of and prevents insurance plans from imposing any cost-sharing requirements on women who obtain preventive care and screenings as defined by HRSA…HHS should more thoroughly ensure that fertility awareness–based methods of family planning are part of women’s preventive services under the ACA. FABMs often involve costs for materials and supplies, and HHS should make clear that coverage of those items is also required. FABMs are highly effective and allow women to make family planning choices in a manner that meets their needs and reflects their values.

Project 2025, page 484 - 485

I will type this repeatedly in the coming months. Project 2025 is a Christian Nationalist policy document. Imagining what’s in their tactical document requires studying what they’re already doing to limit access to contraception as well as reading between the very clear lines above. It’s important to understand where they stand on contraception, because only 13 states had legal protection for contraception as of October 2023. (Source: KFF)

As soon as Roe fell, multiple red state legislatures proposed bills that would block access to morning after pills and IUDs. Several red states have also passed fetal personhood legislation or enshrined it into their state constitutions. Everyone is talking about Alabama’s IVF ruling.

Make no mistake. Christian Nationalists will go further. Their endorsement of fertility awareness methods means they could ban all man-made types of birth control.

Christian Nationalists believe that human life begins at fertilization (before a fertilized egg implants in the uterus.) They define as abortion anything that creates an unfavorable situation for a fertilized egg to implant. Thus they oppose all birth control methods that thicken the cervical mucus or make an otherwise unwelcome uterine environment for implantation.

They oppose birth control methods that suppress ovulation because they believe it interferes with God’s will. The Catholic Church has long forbidden all forms of man-made birth control because it is God’s choice to create life. The evangelical anti-abortion, forced-birth movement has adopted this view. They insist that it is not up to human beings to interfere with a natural process designed by God.

Take a gander at this Project 2025 gem on male condoms.

Eliminate men’s preventive services from the women’s preventive services mandate. In December 2021, HRSA updated its women’s preventive services guidelines to include male condoms after claiming for years that it had no authority to do so because Congress explicitly limited the mandate to “women’s” preventive care and screenings. HRSA should not incorporate exclusively male contraceptive methods into guidelines that specify they encompass only women’s services.

Project 2025, page 485

This could indicate a tactical intention to restrict access to condoms. It could also signal a willingness to separate a man’s contraceptive tool from options for women. Given my experience with Christian Nationalism, I’m more inclined to believe the former. Because again, hardline Christian Nationalists believe nothing man-made should prohibit the joining of sperm and egg.

Plus, restricting condom access or banning them entirely would increase the dangers of same-sex sex, which we know Christian Nationalists deem to be filth and pornography.

Others have written reams about Christian Nationalists’ promotion of the Comstock Act to ban abortion. Many of these articles ignore another thing the Comstock Act forbids: the mailing of all forms of contraception.

If Christian Nationalist legislators or lawyers are able to use Comstock to ban the mailing of mifepristone, it could unleash a new tsunami of bans. They could outlaw the mailing of surgical supplies used to perform an abortion, effectively banning the procedure nationwide.

They could also ban all forms of contraception. Because the Comstock Act says they can. Their unwillingness to repeal Comstock or address its draconian language is tacit endorsement of its designs.

Call me hysterical, but from everything I know about Christian Nationalists, everything I’ve read in Project 2025, and everything red-state politicians are already doing, I believe the Christo-fascist tactical endgame is to ban all forms of contraception, including male condoms, and force everyone to use fertility awareness methods for birth control. It aligns with their definition of family and comports with their belief that all extramarital sex is fornication. This will also punish the LGBTQIA+ community.

We can get upset about every step they take to chip at access, or we can accept banning all contraception as their endgame NOW. Every election matters. Every vote matters. Think about what this could mean for you or someone you love and vote accordingly.