As leaders of the premier professional association of Family Scientists whose members catalyze leading-edge research, theory, and practice to promote family well-being around the world, the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) Board of Directors stands in strong opposition to the policy agenda put forward by Project 2025. Produced by the Heritage Foundation and its affiliates, Project 2025 is a presidential transition plan that proposes to fundamentally reshape the United States federal government and the government’s commitments to equity, justice, and liberty for all. If implemented, Project 2025 would be detrimental to many families, especially those who are already marginalized by society.

Project 2025 goes against NCFR’s commitments to family diversity and ensuring all families thrive. Instead, Project 2025 promotes only one kind of family as best for society: married, heterosexual couples with children, also known as the traditional nuclear family. To restore its version of “the American family,” Project 2025 wants to narrow the definitions of marriage and family. The authors also want to remove certain words and terms from all federal rules and laws, such as “gender,” “gender equality,” “gender equity,” “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” “gender identity,” and “sexual orientation.” Project 2025 specifically targets and pathologizes transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people, especially TGD youth and their families, calling gender-affirming care “child abuse.” Project 2025 also aims to change immigration laws, restricting who can legally reside in the United States and increasing immigrant deportations, which will result in the separation of many immigrant families.

If Project 2025 reaches full implementation, it will do real and lasting harm to families as they exist in our pluralistic, diverse, and democratic society.

Project 2025 seeks to go beyond the overturning of Roe v. Wade by further eroding the reproductive rights of individuals and families, restricting access to abortion and contraception, and eliminating comprehensive sexuality education nationwide. Project 2025 also seeks to drastically alter both PK-12 and higher education. The authors propose to eliminate the Department of Education, eliminate the Head Start program, prioritize home-based childcare over universal preschool, phase out Title I support for the poorest of schools, and scale back Civil Rights enforcement. Related policies targeting higher education could undermine academic freedom, restrict family scholars’ ability to carry out research, and stymie rather than promote critical thinking and the discovery of new knowledge.

If Project 2025 reaches full implementation, vital social institutions, including health care and public education, could be further constrained or eliminated to the detriment of the children and families they serve.

As a professional organization, NCFR is committed to promoting the strengths and well-being of all families in all of their diversities. NCFR’s definition of diversity specifically acknowledges groups experiencing structural oppression, marginalization, and social exclusion in an inequitable society, including racially and ethnically minoritized families, Indigenous families, immigrant families, and LGBTQ+ families. As Family Scientists, we value and see the strengths of diverse family forms, including but not limited to two-parent families headed by married or cohabiting couples; single-parent families formed by divorce, uncoupling, death of a spouse, or by choice; multi-generational, stepfamilies, and other blended families; adoptive, foster, and kinship families; childless and childfree families; and chosen families.

NCFR does not typically weigh in on policy ideas put forward by other organizations. However, the Board of Directors is compelled to sound the alarms about Project 2025 because of the sheer number of families who will be harmed should this agenda be fully implemented. In writing this statement, the NCFR Board of Directors recognizes the value, dignity, and worth of all families and their right to exist and thrive in our society. We urge NCFR members, and the public at large, to educate themselves about Project 2025 and consider the intended and unintended, detrimental consequences it holds for families, and especially those targeted by the Project 2025 agenda. We also encourage individuals to read and share broadly NCFR’s evidence-based Research and Policy Briefs, including the following:

• LGBTQ+ Parents and Their Children 
• Immigrant Families Across the Life Course: Policy Impacts on Physical and Mental Health
• Transforming Child Welfare: Prioritizing Prevention, Racial Equity, and Advancing Child and Family Well-Being
• State Paid Parental Leave Policy: A Tool to Reduce Inequality Within and Between Families

Please join us in working ever harder to uplift diverse families, advance equity and justice for all, and ensure every family thrives in our country and around the world.

- The NCFR Board of Directors

The Board invited all NCFR members to comment on a draft of this statement. Learn more about this feedback process.