INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: How the “Big Beautiful Bill” and Project 2025 Are Waging War on Women’s Health
These matter BIG TIME
“This isn’t just a policy debate—it’s a full-scale assault on reproductive freedom, public health, and the dignity of millions of Americans.”
What’s Happening
On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” a sweeping budget and policy package that not only restructures federal funding, but directly attacks Planned Parenthood and reproductive health care. At the heart of the bill is a Medicaid ban: any organization receiving over $800,000 in federal funds and providing abortion services—even if not funded by Medicaid—would be ineligible for reimbursement.
It’s a clear shot at Planned Parenthood, a leading provider of reproductive care to over 2.6 million Americans annually.
But it’s not just about abortion.
The bill and its Project 2025 underpinnings also endanger access to:
IVF and fertility treatments
Cancer screenings
Birth control and STI testing
Gender-affirming care
Routine reproductive exams
IVF Is Under Threat
Under Project 2025’s influence and the Christian nationalist legal theory behind the bill, embryos are treated as fully protected “persons.” That would legally endanger the IVF process, where fertilized embryos are often frozen, tested, or not all carried to term.
“Project 2025 wants a world where discarding or freezing an embryo is a crime,” said Katherine Franke, law professor at Columbia University. “That makes IVF essentially impossible under their worldview.”
Already, some Republican-led states like Alabama and Missouri have proposed legislation that echoes this. Project 2025 would make it federal policy.
How Cancer Screenings and Preventive Care Are Being Gutted
Planned Parenthood provides more cancer screenings each year than abortions. In 2023 alone:
600,000+ Pap smears (to detect cervical cancer)
500,000+ breast exams
Thousands of HPV vaccinations (the virus linked to cervical, anal, and throat cancers)
These services are often free or low-cost for Medicaid patients—many of whom live in poverty or lack insurance. If the Trump administration’s funding ban succeeds, millions could lose access to life-saving early detection.
“Without Planned Parenthood, I wouldn’t be here today,” said Maria T., a 34-year-old breast cancer survivor from Oklahoma. “They caught my lump early, when I had no insurance.”
In Rural America, They’re the Only Game in Town
In vast swaths of rural America, Planned Parenthood is the only provider for hundreds of miles. According to the Guttmacher Institute, nearly 27% of women in rural counties live in contraceptive deserts—areas with no or limited access to clinics that offer the full range of birth control options.
In states like Texas, Idaho, Mississippi, and the Dakotas, some counties rely on a single Planned Parenthood clinic for:
Birth control pills and devices
STI testing
Pregnancy testing and prenatal referrals
Breast and cervical exams
LGBTQ+ inclusive care
With clinics already shuttering due to earlier funding cuts and state-level bans, the federal Medicaid cutoff could trigger a death spiral.
The Bigger Picture: Project 2025 and the War on Women
This isn’t just about one bill. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” is the first wave of a larger ideological war being driven by Project 2025—a right-wing policy playbook produced by the Heritage Foundation and backed by Trump allies.
Here’s what Project 2025 demands:
Total federal defunding of Planned Parenthood
Repeal of contraceptive mandates in the ACA
Declaring personhood at conception, criminalizing abortion and IVF
Repeal of Title X (family planning)
Appointment of anti-abortion ideologues in key health agencies
Re-criminalizing the mailing of abortion pills using 1873 Comstock laws
Redefining HHS as a “Department of Life”
They are using Trump’s return to the White House—and his loyalty to the religious right—as the platform to carry it all out.
Real Lives, Real Consequences
This is personal.
A teen girl in rural Montana will lose her only access to free birth control.
A trans man in Georgia can no longer get affordable hormone therapy.
A Black woman in Mississippi misses her routine pap smear and receives a late-stage cancer diagnosis.
A working-class couple in Ohio may never have children due to bans on IVF.
This isn’t hypothetical. It’s happening now.
What You Can Do
This fight will define the next decade of public health and gender equity in America. Here’s what you can do:
1. Show Up and Speak Out
Join rallies supporting reproductive rights
Testify at state or local hearings on women’s health funding
Call your representatives at the state and federal levels
2. Support Clinics Under Threat
Donate to Planned Parenthood or local clinics filling the gap
Support ACLU, Reproductive Freedom Fund, and abortion access networks
3. Amplify Personal Stories
Share real stories of people affected by these cuts—on social media, at town halls, or with the press
Humanize the debate to break through partisan noise
4. VOTE Like It’s Your Life—Because It Is
Demand that federal candidates commit to restoring reproductive access
Track local and state-level legislation (many attacks start small)
Support pro-choice governors and state lawmakers who can protect care at the local level
The Bottom Line
The “Big Beautiful Bill” is not just another piece of legislation. It is the opening salvo in a coordinated effort to dismantle reproductive freedom, criminalize IVF, and push women—especially poor women—out of public life by restricting their bodily autonomy.
Project 2025 is the blueprint. Trump is the battering ram.
It will take a mass movement to stop this. But history has shown: when we organize, when we rise, when we refuse to be silenced—we win.
Your voice matters. Your vote matters. Your story matters.
Let’s act like our daughters’ futures depend on it.
Because they do.
Great content as usual