Unsure what’s at stake in the 2024 presidential election? Chelsea Handler laid it on the line in a recent X post, especially for women now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. You shouldn’t always take political advice from a comedian, but in this case, Handler’s analysis is astute, spot-on, and as always, funny.
To refresh, Donald Trump appointed three Supreme Court Justices in his first ⏤ and hopefully only ⏤ term with a clear agenda to overturn Roe v. Wade. As Handler points out in her video, Trump is running again in a tight election and has sought to distance himself from Project 2025, a blueprint for his potential second term. The Heritage Foundation developed Project 2025, and Trump has since said that he had “nothing to do with it,” calling many of the policy proposals “ridiculous and abysmal.”
But, as Handler adds, about 140 former Trump White House staffers and advisors wrote parts of it, such as Russell Vought, Trump’s VP pick JD Vance, and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, among other known Trump associates. Despite Trump’s denial, Roberts has said Trump “blessed” the plan, as Forbes reports.
So, what’s so wrong with Project 2025? A lot, according to Handler and many others who have examined the 900-page handbook, and nowhere more so than how it would affect women’s reproductive rights.
Project 2025 and the Comstock Act
In her scathing takedown of Trump and Project 2025, Handler narrows her sights on what Project 2025 says about the Comstock Act, a questionable and arcane law from the Civil War era that’s considered unenforceable, prohibiting objects deemed “obscene” being sent through the mail. Project 2025 seeks to employ the Comstock Act to stop mailing abortion medication, and by doing so, it would institute a national abortion ban, according to the Center for American Progress.
If the Comstock Act is revived, Handler says, a possible Trump second term would see doctors and healthcare providers jailed for shipping abortion medication. “In all seriousness, people’s lives are on the line,” she says. “Trump would overturn Biden-Harris executive actions protecting a woman’s right to an abortion when her life is at risk … Kamala Harris is fighting to pass a law to protect reproductive freedom in all 50 states.”
Handler talks politics in her post, but the occasional Daily Show guest host also drops plenty of comedy. Why would we listen to Vance about women’s reproductive health, she wonders, a man “who sits like he’s at the gynecologist?” As she concludes, “Vote like your Pikachus depend on it.” Do we sense a new Harris/Walz campaign slogan in the making?