Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, news outlets have published numerous stories documenting how restricted abortion access has medically harmed women across the U.S. In contrast, numerous groups involved with Project 2025, including lead organizer The Heritage Foundation, have falsely claimed over the years that abortions are never medically necessary. 

The Associated Press reported that doctors have said “that there are many circumstances in which abortion — meaning the termination of a pregnancy — can be medically necessary,” and AFP wrote that “the scientific consensus” is “that abortion is sometimes medically necessary.” 

Since Dobbs, media outlets have also highlighted cases where state abortion bans have caused significant medical issues. 

ABC News talked to “18 women from across 10 states who say their medical care was impacted by abortion bans -- bringing some of them to the brink of death.” ProPublica reported on how doctors “say they can’t give women potentially lifesaving care.” The Washington Post “found that many hospitals have failed to provide specific guidance or policies to help doctors navigate high-stakes decisions over how to interpret new abortion bans — leading to situations where patients are denied care until they are on the brink of permanent injury or death.” And the AP reported this week on how “abortion bans complicate risky pregnancy care.” 

Media Matters has documented how Project 2025 seeks to significantly restrict reproductive rights in the country. Multiple Project 2025 partners have also continued to signal that they want to criminalize abortion.

The project is closely tied to former President Donald Trump and his campaign. Trump running mate JD Vance — who has said that he “certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally” and called abortion supporters “sociopathic” — also has connections to multiple Project 2025 partner organizations.

Project 2025, which offers staffing and extremist policy recommendations for the next administration, encompasses numerous organizations that have pushed the false claim that abortions are never medically necessary. Here are a dozen examples Media Matters found in a noncomprehensive review of groups involved with Project 2025. 

The Heritage Foundation wrote a March 2023 letter to the Department of Health and Human Services in which it stated that “it is also worth noting that few if any of the so-called medical services to which a health care entity could possibly have a religious or moral objection to are in fact necessary, life-preserving, or lifesaving … Another common example is abortion. But abortion is very rarely (if ever) medically necessary and there are no religious tenants that would forbid a healthcare entity from providing stabilizing care to a pregnant woman at imminent risk of death.” 

American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists has repeatedly and falsely stated on social media that “abortion is never medically necessary.” It also filed an amicus curiae in the Dobbs case repeatedly stating that abortion is “never medically necessary.” Additionally, AAPLOG’s Donna Harrison co-authored a February 2019 opinion piece claiming “the truth … is that there is no situation in which an abortion is medically necessary.” 

American Family Association posted a June 2022 piece by Vice President of Operations Walker Wildmon quoting a statement from anti-abortion doctors claiming that “direct abortion – the purposeful destruction of the unborn child – is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman.” Wildmon added: “Abortion should not be permitted under the law regardless of circumstance as it is morally wrong. Abortion should be abolished.” He also wrote on social media: “Abortion is NEVER medically necessary. The IVF industry has been extremely careless in discarding embryos without proper regulation!” 

California Family Council wrote that “there is no medical reason for the life of a child to be directly and intentionally ended with an abortion procedure,” adding, “In fact, an emergency c-section takes under an hour to perform, while a late-term abortion can take two days. No doctor in a lifesaving situation would choose an abortion procedure over an emergency c-section, underscoring the fact that abortion is not medically necessary.” 

Eagle Forum posted a July commentary piece by Heartland Institute writer Ashley Bateman with the headline “No, Abortion Is Never Medically Necessary.” 

Ethics and Public Policy Center has repeatedly posted commentary pieces stating that abortion “is never medically necessary,” including in June of this year. 

Family Research Council has repeatedly claimed that abortions are never medically necessary. In September 2022, it wrote on social media: “Abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a mother.” FRC’s publication The Washington Stand posted a September 2022 piece with the headline “3 Reasons Why Abortion Is Never Medically Necessary.” And the organization’s program Washington Watch with Tony Perkins hosted AAPLOG’s Donna Harrison to purportedly explain “why an abortion is never medically necessary.” 

The Heartland Institute’s Ashley Batemen wrote a July piece with the headline “No, Abortion Is Never Medically Necessary.” 

Media Research Center wrote in June on social media: “Friendly reminder that abortion is never medically necessary.” 

Students for Life of America has repeatedly stated that abortion is “never medically necessary” and has released videos with the title “Abortion is NEVER Medically Necessary.” The group’s president, Kristan Hawkins, has also falsely claimed that abortion is ”never medically necessary to save the life of the mother.” 

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has written that “abortion is never about saving a life. It is about killing a human being, & it is never medically necessary to intentionally kill an unborn child in an abortion in order to save the life of its mother.” 

Young America’s Foundation has hosted a video of anti-abortion commentator Lila Rose with the caption “abortion is never medically necessary.”