Dear Editor,
As Ohioans and Americans, we all deserve the freedom to make decisions about when and how to start a family, who we love, how we will vote, and what our children read.
Project 2025, a 900-page presidential transition blueprint, aims to replace our democracy with an authoritarian regime that would place unchecked legal power in the hands of extremist politicians. It was written by the Heritage Foundation and other far-right organizations.
If these organizations and extremist Republicans have their way, Project 2025 will directly impact you or someone you love. It will:
• Limit family planning, contraception, emergency reproductive care, IVF, and who can adopt children. What if it were your wife or daughter in need of emergency surgery due to an ectopic pregnancy?
• Eliminate the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans. At least one sitting Supreme Court justice has already mentioned overturning marriage equality.
• Roll back provisions of the Voting Rights Act and allow state legislatures to override federal election results.
• Abolish the Department of Education and further limit what teachers can teach and what books students may read while continuing to attack our public schools.
Does this sound like a grim scenario portrayed in dystopian novels like “The Handmaid’s Tale”? Think again. In the last few years, extremist Republican state legislators have already passed near-total abortion bans, voter-suppression laws, and book bans in our public schools and libraries.
The best way to avoid the dark reality of Project 2025 is to pay attention not only to what candidates say but also to what they do—and to vote for candidates who are committed to freedom and to keeping the government out of our personal lives and medical decisions—candidates like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Sherrod Brown, and Jerrad Christian.
Mark Tuel
Mount Vernon, Ohio