Ms. Must-Reads: Feb. 12

This week, Contributing editor Carrie Baker takes a deep dive into what “Project 2025” would mean for women’s and LGBTQ+ people’s lives. The project is a Heritage Foundation-led plan for the next Republican president to use in securing reactionary government policies by “eliminating the agencies and offices responsible for enforcing civil rights laws and placing trained right-wing ideologues in staff positions throughout the federal government.”

The plan, which includes an 887-page policy agenda, a presidential personnel database of vetted ultra-conservatives, and a playbook for the first 180 days of their long-awaited second Trump presidential term should he win and take office in 2025, promises attacks on women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, closing the border, and implementing a total ban on abortion, among other things.

Although some of their objectives might seem far-fetched, their determination to ban abortion nationwide is within reach. As Shefali Luthra and Mel Leonor Barclay detail in an article for The 19th*, actions like forcing the FDA to withdraw its approval of the abortion medication mifepristone, forcing the enforcement of the Comstock Act to prevent the mailing of abortion pills and any other equipment or medications, and refusing to hold accountable anti-abortion extremists who harass clinics are all ways a Republican administration could restrict abortion.

As if we needed any of this, given the current reticence of Republicans in Congress to even gesture at supporting the rights and needs of women and their families. A tax bill that would support expanding the Child Tax Credit—helping an estimated 16 million children this year and lifting 400,000 out of poverty—is likely to be blocked by Republicans in the Senate. “I think passing a tax bill that makes the president look good mailing out checks before the election, means he could be reelected and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax cuts,” Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley told a reporter with Semafor this week.

If the forces behind Project 2025’s number one goal of “restor[ing] the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect[ing] our children” are really so invested in protecting children, you’d think the politicians that they back would be more than happy to support a tax credit that would lift 400,000 out of poverty. That they are not lays bare the hypocrisy at the core of their agenda.

If you’re looking for some lighter reading this week, check out Ms. contributor Jackson Katz’s piece on the Super Bowl and the political power of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. While Swift’s political sway has been widely acknowledged, Katz posits that Kelce has even greater potential to influence young men. “When traditionally successful men like Kelce support liberal and progressive causes and candidates—especially when they do so openly and unapologetically—they help to provide a ‘permission structure’ for young men to vote for Democrats, including Joe Biden,” he writes. “This could be a nightmare scenario for MAGA well beyond November.”

We hope you’ll start your week with Ms.!

For equality,

Kathy Spillar

Executive Editor

This week's Ms. must-reads:

• "Project 2025: The Right’s Dystopian Plan to Dismantle Civil Rights and What It Means for Women" — Carrie Baker
• "The Tools Trump Could Use to Curb Abortion Access if He’s Elected" — Shefali Luthra, Mel Leonor Barclay
• "Taylor Swift Is a Threat to the Right—and So Is Travis Kelce" —?Jackson Katz
• "Reads for the Rest of Us: The Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2024" — Karla J. Strand