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EXPLAINER

Kamala Harris often claims that a Trump administration would interfere with pregnancies. But is that really true?

On multiple occasions in her closing pitch to voters, Vice President Kamala Harris said her opponent, former President Donald Trump, would intrude on women’s pregnancies.

As she denounced Trump’s record on reproductive rights, she said on October 29 that he would “force states to monitor women’s pregnancies”. She urged listeners to “Google Project 2025 and read the plans for yourself”, referring to a conservative policy blueprint assembled by some of Trump’s supporters.

Harris repeated the line the following night at a rally in Madison, Wisconsin.

Harris’s statement echoed a similar one by her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who said that Project 2025 would require women to “register with a new federal agency when you get pregnant”.

The Harris campaign again pointed to Project 2025 when asked for evidence of Harris’s claim.

Project 2025 is a policy blueprint for the next Republican administration developed by Trump’s allies, including The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration. It is not a Trump campaign document.

Project 2025 does not call on states or the federal government to monitor pregnancies from the moment they are discovered. The plan would call for more comprehensive monitoring of pregnancies that end in foetal death, such as abortions, miscarriages and stillbirths, than the US government currently requires.

The manual proposes stronger state-based abortion data as part of its broader push to refashion the Health and Human Services Department into a “Department of Life”.

Project 2025 proposes the federal government withhold money from states that do not report more detailed abortion data to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The document calls for the Health and Human Services Department to “use every available tool, including the cutting of funds”, to ensure states report the following:

• The number of abortions within their borders.
• The weeks of gestation the abortion took place.
• The reason for the abortion.
• The pregnant woman’s state of residence.
• The method of the abortion.

It says these statistics should be separated by category, including spontaneous miscarriage, treatments that incidentally result in foetal death (such as chemotherapy), stillbirths and induced abortion.

Currently, states are not required to submit abortion data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the majority do, except for California, Maryland and New Hampshire. To collect individual state data, most state vital statistics agencies have designed a form that abortion providers use for reporting.

Harris’s statements in recent days have become less specific and even less accurate than in her speech at the Democratic National Convention. Then, she said Trump “plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions”. That is not true.

Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025 in recent months, and he has not called for monitoring pregnancy outcomes or pregnancies broadly.

When Trump was asked in April whether states should monitor or punish women who have illegal abortions, Trump said some states “might” choose to do that but maintained that it was up to them.

Our ruling

Harris said Trump would “force states to monitor women’s pregnancies”.

The claim is wrong on two counts. Trump has not proposed forcing states to monitor pregnancies. It is also not an accurate depiction of a Project 2025 policy proposal.

Project 2025 recommends the federal government require states to report complete data on pregnancies that end in foetal death and to use federal funding as leverage to ensure compliance.

This data would reflect certain pregnancy outcomes, including abortions, miscarriages and stillbirths. It would not involve the government tracking the progress of all pregnancies from start to finish.

The statement is inaccurate. We rate it false.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tropical Storm Rafael chugged toward the Cayman Islands on Tuesday and was forecast to strengthen into a hurricane en route to Cuba.

The storm was located 105 miles (170 kilometers) southwest of Kingston, Jamaica, early Tuesday. It had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph) and was moving northwest at 13 mph (20 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

“Rafael is forecast to become a hurricane in the northwestern Caribbean near the Cayman Islands with further strengthening before it makes landfall in Cuba,” the center said.

The storm is expected to move near Jamaica on Tuesday morning, be near or over the Cayman Islands on Tuesday night and be near or over western Cuba on Wednesday.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the Cayman Islands and the Cuban provinces of Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, La Habana, Mayabeque, Matanzas and the Isle of Youth. A tropical storm warning is in effect for Jamaica and the Cuban provinces of Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spiritus and Ciego de Avila. A tropical storm watch is in effect for the Cuban provinces of Camaguey and Las Tunas and the Lower and Middle Florida Keys from Key West to west of the Channel 5 Bridge, as well as Dry Tortugas.

“The storm is currently situated in an atmospheric and oceanic environment that is quite conducive for strengthening,” the hurricane center said.

Rafael is expected to pass near or over the Cayman Islands late Tuesday, with officials closing schools and government offices as they urged residents to prepare. Jamaica also closed down as a precaution, with the storm’s outer winds battering the island late Monday.

Rafael was forecast to approach Cuba on Wednesday. Cuban authorities said Monday night that some 37,000 people are under evacuation orders in far eastern Cuba, in the province of Guantanamo, due to bad weather.

The island is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Oscar, which battered the island about two weeks ago after making landfall in the eastern part of Cuba, killing at least six people. The storm also coincided with a large-scale blackout on the island.

Forecasters warned Rafael would unleash heavy rains across the western Caribbean that could lead to flooding and mudslides, with totals of 3 to 6 inches (7 to 15 centimeters) and up to 10 inches (25 cm) expected locally in Jamaica and parts of Cuba.

Heavy rainfall also was expected to spread north into Florida and nearby areas of the southeast U.S. during the middle to late part of the week. A few tornadoes also were expected Wednesday over the Keys and southwesternmost Florida mainland.

Rafael is the 17th named storm of the season.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the 2024 hurricane season was likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast called for as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.