House Democrats highlight abortion horror stories at Project 2025 hearing

Democrats on Capitol Hill took aim at Project 2025 on Tuesday at a special hearing aimed at exposing Americansto the increasingly unpopular conservative policy plan drawn up by a host of right-leaning organizations.

It was a hearing billed as outlining the plan’s “devastating impact on hardworking American taxpayers” and dealing with a wide range of the plan’s proposals — which are extensive in scope and deal with everything from energy policy to education.

But the vast majority of the hearing’s time centered around one issue: abortion access, and the dangerous circumstances which abortion bans across conservatives states around the country can leave women facing.

It’s hard to fault Democrats for fixating on that part of the plan, given the shocking stories that have emerged from woment stuck waiting for their conditions to worsen before doctors would treat them, afraid of running afoul of legislation banning abortion care except in life-threatening circumstances. But the party could run the risk of overshadowing efforts to highlight other aspects of the plan, like how it represents a path to undoing decades of regulation and policies dealing with the environment and could bring to a halt the US’s efforts to fight climate change. There’s also the blueprint for eroding the independence of the Justice Department, which has alarmed constitutional law and ethics watchdogs.

Still, the party’s strategy is inarguably working: An NBC News poll released on Sunday indicates that the “Project 2025” brand is in the absolute furthest depths of unpopularity. More than half of those surveyed — registered voters from a nationwide sample of 1,000 — have a negative view of the policy project, while just 4 percent viewed it positively.

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