They build rightwing policy manifestos
The Heritage Foundation seeks to ban abortion access through executive orders, agency directives, and other sneaky strategies that undermine the will of the people and skirt the other branches of government.
Activism 101 Deep Dives
The Heritage Foundation: Anti-Abortion Policy Architects
The Heritage Foundation is an alt-right think tank that cooked up Project 2025, the conservative policy plan to devastate reproductive freedom, and so much more
Key Takeaways
- The Heritage Foundation is an influential alt-right Christian nationalist think tank that designs policy plans to decimate fundamental rights, reproductive freedom and reshape the federal government
- The Heritage Foundation builds power through its policy blueprints, dark-money networks, and coordinated pressure campaigns
- The Heritage Foundations’ notable connections include President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and 175+ officials who worked in Trump’s current or former administration, campaign, or transition teams
⚡️ TL; DR (too long, didn’t read):
The Heritage Foundation is a far-right, Christian nationalist think tank and the key architect behind Project 2025—the sweeping plan to remake the federal government and dismantle reproductive freedom nationwide.
For decades, the Heritage Foundation has influenced Republican policy plans to reshape the federal government in order to impose an extremist Christian nationalist worldview.
Their vision includes banning abortion nationwide as a starting point. The Heritage Foundation envisions a world in which women, LGBTQ+ communities, anyone else who doesn’t fit their so-called “ideal family” are stripped of their rights and freedom to control their own life, body, and future.
We’re currently tracking Project 2025, their dangerous plan to undermine reproductive freedom and so much more.
Fight back against anti-abortion extremism with us.
Above: MS Now’s Alvi Velshi reporting on The Heritage Foundation’s new blueprint for American women, describing the policy proposals that aim to push women toward greater economic dependence on men, by promoting policies designed to pressure women into marriage and motherhood.
🔍 The Heritage Foundation’s Anti-Abortion Playbook
The Heritage Foundation builds power through its policy blueprints, dark-money networks, and coordinated pressure campaigns.
How they do it:
They recruit, train, and place political loyalists
Their allies go on to implement The Heritage Foundation's dangerous policies inside government, specifically within the Executive branch (the agencies that report to the president).
They promote state-level abortion bans
The Heritage Foundation works closely with other extremist allies to test-drive state laws designed to be challenged in court, or modeled and adopted into federal law.
They pressure Congress
The Heritage Foundation pushes lawmakers to pass nationwide abortion restrictions and weaken federal reproductive health protections
They help stack the courts
Along with their extremist ally, The Federalist Society, The Heritage Foundation vets and uplifts anti-abortion judges who go on to serve lifetime appointments on federal and state benches, and the U.S. Supreme Court
📝 Their Anti-Abortion Record: The Heritage Foundation’s Hall of Shame Scorecard
Influence: 👎👎👎👎👎
The Heritage Foundation wields extraordinary influence developing blueprints for anti-abortion policy, shaping political agendas, and staffing the government with rightwing loyalists prepared to carry out their alarming plans.
Extremism: 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
The Heritage Foundation’s agenda reflects a broader Christian nationalist vision that seeks to control bodily autonomy, sexuality, and family life through government force.
Harm: 💔💔💔💔💔
Their anti-abortion priorities overlap with their vision to restructure government itself, which includes taking away our voting rights and access to health care and education, all in the name of their extremist, alt-right ideology.
The anti-abortion policies championed by the Heritage Foundation have caused devastating harm:
- Forcing people to travel long distances to access care
- Denying patients access to medication abortion and emergency care
- Medical suffering, trauma, and preventable deaths.
Lies & Disinformation: 🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥
The Heritage Foundation promotes an anti-abortion narrative while:
- Elevating unregulated fake anti-abortion centers that mislead patients
- Spreading false claims and junk science about abortion
- Falsely framing reproductive freedom as a threat to families and society
👺 Notable Connections
U.S. President
Donald Trump
Kevin D. Roberts, President of The Heritage Foundation is openly hostile about abortion, has met personally with President Trump, and stated that he views The Heritage Foundation’s role as “institutionalizing Trumpism.”
U.S. Vice President
JD Vance
Vance wrote the forward for Dawn’s Early Light written by Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts in which Roberts praises Texas’ bounty hunter-style abortion ban, and describes a government that rewards the “upright” while punishing “scoundrels,” pushing the idea of a government that uses the law to enforce a narrow moral code.
Director, U.S. Office of Management and Budget
Russ Vought
Vought is widely considered radical even in conservative circles (he considers The Federalist Society “too soft”).
A key architect of Project 2025 and current Trump administration official, Vought now holds sweeping budgetary and administrative power and is central to why 53% of Project 2025’s policies attacking reproductive freedom are completed or in progress.
U.S. Attorney General
Pam Bondi
Pam Bondi is an anti-abortion extremist who upheld Florida’s restrictive abortion ban prior to being appointed by Trump. Before serving as U.S. Attorney General, Pam Bondi was actively working to implement Project 2025 at the America First Policy Institute.
U.S. Homeland Security Advisor
Steve Miller
Helped craft Project 2025’s blueprint for expanding executive power and cracking down on immigration by using his group, America First Legal, as a bridge between The Heritage Foundation and the Trump administration.
Federal Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri
Joshua Divine
Trump-appointed federal judge Joshua Divine has accepted lodging and travel accommodations from the Heritage Foundation. Divine has a dangerous record of attacking reproductive freedom, which includes representing Missouri in baseless lawsuits against mifepristone and leading a case to undermine Missouri’s abortion rights ballot initiative.
175+ connections to the Trump Administration
At least 175 of Project 2025’s authors and contributors were in President Trump’s administration, campaign, or transition teams—revealing deep overlap between the plan and Trump’s governing agenda, despite public denials.
Some of the Trump officials directly tied to Project 2025 include Reed D. Rubinstein (State Dept.), Brendan Carr (FCC), Adam Candeub (FCC), Casey B. Mulligan (Small Business Administration), Tom Homan (“Border Czar”), John Ratcliffe (CIA), Paul Atkins (SEC nominee), and Michael Anton (State Dept.).
DOJ, Assistant Attorney General for The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)
T. Elliot Gaiser
Gaiser received the 2024 “The Heritage Foundation’s Distinguished Intern Alumni Award and credited Heritage for developing his “commitment to conservative principles.”
Gaiser has a deeply problematic record on reproductive freedom, which includes defending Ohio’s abortion ban long after it was overturned by voters as Solicitor General in 2023. In his role at the OLC in the DOJ, Gaiser could further jeopardize access to abortion and other reproductive health care.
Co-Chairman and former EVP of the Federalist Society
Leonard Leo
Leonard Leo is a central figure of anti-abortion movement who has led the initiative to install conservative judges in federal courts and played a pivotal role in overturning Roe. Leo’s dark money network—backed by Chicago billionaire extremist Barre Seid—funded some two-thirds of Project 2025.
The Republican Party
The Heritage Foundation sponsored the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in 2024. The Heritage Foundation has been staffing Republican administrations since the Reagan era.
🚨The Heritage Foundation’s Latest Hits on Reproductive Freedom
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More Reading
Deep Dives Activism 101
The Federalist Society: How the Anti-Abortion Movement Stacked the Courts with Extremists
Deep Dives Activism 101
The Heritage Foundation: Anti-Abortion Policy Architects
Deep Dives Activism 101
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF): The Anti-Abortion Movement’s Legal Powerhouse
Deep Dives Activism 101
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA): The Anti-Abortion Movement’s Political Puppeteer Power Broker
Deep Dives Reproductive Rights