Stranger Than (Science) Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Quiet Enforcement of Project 2025’s Dystopian Anti-Abortion Agenda
I can’t read dystopian sci-fi novels anymore. I just finished Sunrise on the Reaping–the newest addition to The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins–which explores the violent lengths that a tyrannical government will go to control the masses through fear, propaganda, and exploitation. It’s hard to get into a story like that while in the middle of a real-life hostile government takeover by the wealthy and powerful.
Last fall, we released a blog series analyzing Project 2025, a right-wing playbook for how the next conservative administration could dismantle our freedoms and promote the well-being of the few on the backs of the people. The terrifying document belongs in a dystopian sci-fi novel, with its extreme policy recommendations seeking to impose a hierarchical, gendered, patriarchal vision of society and family that relies on narrowly defined gender roles. Much like the authoritarian regimes in dystopian sci-fi novels like The Hunger Games, Parable of the Sower, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Dispossessed, the architects of Project 2025 seek to force women and LGBTQIA+ people to conform to a heterosexual, male-dominated society by eliminating our rights and protections.
While he tried to distance himself from Project 2025 during the campaign once it became unpopular, Trump has since tapped several drafters of this evil manifesto for official cabinet positions and implemented dozens of its recommendations—including many of its suggested attacks on abortion.
If you haven’t heard about these rollbacks on abortion access, you’re not alone. The Trump administration’s chaotic approach to governance seems designed to keep the public distracted by rage-bait headlines. And from Trump’s March 4, 2025, address to Congress—where he notably didn’t mention abortion—it appears he is trying to divert attention from his unpopular anti-abortion policies. This makes sense given the rising support for abortion rights ballot measures and polling showing that most U.S. adults believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But Trump can’t pull the wool over our eyes, because we are paying attention.
So let’s review which of Project 2025’s anti-abortion policies Trump has implemented in the first few months of his administration. Since his second administration began on January 20, 2025, Trump has followed Project 2025’s anti-abortion suggestions to a tee by:
- Revoking two Biden-era executive orders issued to protect and expand access to reproductive health care, particularly addressing the public health crisis caused by the unlawful Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade (suggestion in Project 2025, page 479).
- Eliminating the Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access that President Biden established to address the ongoing public health crisis. The Task Force aimed to improve access to reproductive health care services, contraception, and maternal health by working with providers and advocacy groups to identify barriers to reproductive healthcare and develop strategies to address them (suggestion in Project 2025, pg. 489).
- Issuing several executive orders attempting to undermine longstanding federal protections against discrimination based on sex and gender identity (suggestion in Project 2025, pg. 36).
- Reinstating the Global Gag Rule, restricting U.S. funds for international organizations that provide or advocate for abortion services, causing serious damage to global health outcomes (suggestion in Project 2025, pg. 261).
- Pardoning 23 anti-abortion extremists convicted under the FACE Act (a federal law that protects patients accessing reproductive health care facilities from harassment and violence by prohibiting the use of force or obstruction by protesters) for intimidating reproductive health clinics, followed by an announcement that the Department of Justice will limit enforcement of the FACE Act (suggestion in Project 2025, pg. 558).
- Eliminating travel and leave benefits for service members seeking abortion care without prior notification, affecting military families nationwide (suggestion in Project 2025, pg. 644).
- Dropping a case intended to defend emergency abortion care in Idaho, undermining access for patients and fostering uncertainty for providers wanting to give proper care (suggestion in Project 2025, pg. 479).
In less than three months, the Trump administration implemented a slew of Project 2025’s anti-abortion policies, eerily mirroring the oppressive regimes in sci-fi novels by Suzanne Collins, Margaret Atwood, Octavia E. Butler, and Ursula K. LeGuin.
In The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins investigates how a totalitarian government–known as The Capitol–normalizes barbaric actions through threats of violence, criminalization, and exploitation of the masses. Now more than ever, the U.S. government reflects the oligarchical regime depicted in The Hunger Games, where dissidents are punished while the wealthy and powerful are empowered to act lawlessly.
Revoking reproductive health care protections in a country where a quarter of all states ban abortion evokes The Handmaid’s Tale, where–in a dystopian society called Gilead–people capable of pregnancy (“handmaids”) are kidnapped and violently forced to bear children for members of an authoritarian government. The regime of Gilead enforces a strict racial hierarchy, with white women primarily serving as handmaids, while women of color are often marginalized or relegated to lower social statuses. This reflects real-world issues of race and power dynamics, underscoring the intersection of gender and race in oppressive systems.
Meanwhile, pardons for violent anti-abortion extremists echo the corruption and violence of law enforcement in Parable of the Sower, where Lauren Olamina–a young Black woman facing intersecting forms of oppression based on her identity–navigates a crumbling society by creating a community centered on adaptability and mutual care amidst societal chaos and violence.
And the silent elimination of critical military travel benefits for abortion care mirrors the authoritarian regime in The Dispossessed, where individual freedoms, including bodily autonomy, are often compromised by societal expectations and the demands of a patriarchal system.
Sci-fi is my favorite genre because it can provide valuable insight into the future of society if today’s social inequities remain unresolved and abuses of power go unchecked. But I can’t read dystopian sci-fi anymore, because it too closely resembles our reality. As dystopian authors have speculated, an authoritarian government takeover does not happen overnight. It happens slowly, and often quietly, through a series of increasingly hostile actions, normalized by those in power, until one day–like a frog slowly boiled in a pot of water–you wake up and realize it’s too late.
For people who care about civil rights and access to reproductive health care, the feeling of dread is overwhelming right now. If the Trump administration quietly accomplished these actions in less than three months, I shudder to think about what this administration will do over the next four years. But history (and sci-fi) has also shown us that the resilience of the human spirit can challenge even the most oppressive regimes. As we navigate these scary and turbulent times, let us remember the power of collective action, class solidarity, and unwavering advocacy for justice. Like Lauren Olamina in Parable of the Sower, we can adapt to survive and thrive in this unpredictable world by prioritizing community care. And like Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, we can transform our fear into action and fight for a future where everyone is safe.
