Satire fuels misinformation about Project 2025 plan for Trump presidency
- Published on July 12, 2024 at 22:11
- 3 min read
- By Natalie WADE, AFP USA
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Social media posts claim Project 2025, a sweeping set of conservative policy proposals for the United States, recommends mandating people carry "period passports" to monitor their menstrual cycle and pregnancies. This is false; although the agenda outlines changes that would limit reproductive freedom, the allegation stems from a satirical account.
"BREAKING: The Project 25 group says women should be mandated to carry 'period passports' that track their menstrual cycles and must be kept up to date, and women must present these to police officers during random ID checks to monitor pregnancies," says a July 6, 2024 X post.
A July 7 Threads post shared the same claim, adding: "Women and Men Must REJECT TRUMP AND PROJECT 25! This is Insanity!"
Screenshot of an X post taken July 11, 2024
Screenshot of a Threads post taken July 12, 2024
The claims spread elsewhere on X, Facebook and TikTok as Democrats and US President Joe Biden's campaign continued to attack Project 2025.
The initiative, spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation in partnership with more than 100 other conservative groups, is a blueprint for reshaping the federal government should a Republican win the presidential election this fall.
Project 2025, whose goals are outlined in a nearly 900-page book titled "Mandate for Leadership: A Conservative Promise" (archived here), is often tied to former president Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. Trump has tried to distance himself from the initiative (archived here), despite multiple news outlets reporting that many of his allies and former administration members have ties to it.
Democrats have expressed concerns over Project 2025's proposal to rescind the Food and Drug Administration's approval for abortion medication such as mifepristone, limit access to emergency contraceptives and dissolve the Reproductive Healthcare Access Task Force established under the Biden administration.
However, Ellen Keenan of the Heritage Foundation told AFP the group has not proposed instituting "period passports."
"That claim is absolutely false and is not mentioned anywhere in Project 2025," she said in a July 12 email.
A keyword search confirms the document does not mention "period passports."
The Halfway Post, a satirical social media page whose posts have previously spread out of context, first published the claim July 6 on X (archived here).
"BREAKING: The Project 25 group says women should be mandated to carry 'period passports' that track their menstrual cycles and must be kept up to date, and women must present these to police officers during random ID checks to monitor pregnancies," the account said.
The Halfway Post's profile description says it shares "halfway true comedy and satire" and does not "report the facts" (archived here).
But its claims about "period passports" have recirculated in other posts without such disclaimers.
Many social media users compared the allegation to the dystopian theocracy of Gilead in the popular book and television series "The Handmaid's Tale."
More of AFP's reporting on misinformation about reproductive rights is available here.
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