On Mother's Day, the Trump administration unveiled Moms.gov, a website purporting to support families facing unexpected pregnancies. First lady Melania Trump penned an op-ed celebrating women who can "lead boldly at work while restoring the honor of motherhood," and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administration's Medicare and Medicaid administrator, suggested the U.S. is "under-babied." But a closer look at the site's resources and the administration's broader record reveals a stark disconnect between its rhetoric and its actions.
The website's "Access Pregnancy Support Services and Health Centers" link directs users to "Option Line," a service run by the anti-abortion group Heartbeat International. These pregnancy centers offer only limited medical services and do not provide abortion referrals. The site's abortion information page emphasizes "the risk of physical harm" and promotes "Abortion Pill Reversal" for those experiencing regret—a practice the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says is "not based on science." Meanwhile, the adoption and parenting links omit any mention of risks, despite studies showing pregnancy-related death is 44 to 70 times higher than abortion-related mortality.
The administration also proposed a rule expanding workers' fertility benefits, following an executive order aimed at making it "easier for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children." But the rule merely permits employers to offer supplemental IVF coverage without any requirements or incentives, doing little to address existing inequities in access to fertility treatments.
Beyond the website, the Trump administration's policies have directly threatened maternal health. In his first term, Trump appointed justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. In his second term, he signed an executive order supporting the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment—with no exception for maternal health concerns, disproportionately affecting low-income women. The administration also signaled that hospitals are not required to perform medically necessary abortions to prevent organ failure or preserve future fertility.
The Biden administration had issued guidance requiring emergency abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) when pregnancy poses "serious jeopardy," and even sued Idaho over its restrictive abortion ban. But last June, the Trump administration rescinded that guidance, effectively allowing hospitals to deny life- or health-saving abortions in emergencies.
The administration is also targeting medication abortion, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of all abortions. Mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortion, has been approved for over 25 years and proven safe in more than 100 studies—safer than Viagra or ibuprofen. Yet this fall, the administration launched its own review of the drug's safety and efficacy, based on a study widely dismissed as junk science.
Trump has slashed critical programs that support women and children. The Department of Health and Human Services has dramatically cut Title X, which serves nearly 3 million low-income or uninsured patients annually, and defunded the national Maternal Mental Health Hotline. His reconciliation bill, enacted last July, cut Medicaid by almost $1 trillion over a decade and reduced the Children's Health Insurance Program. Medicaid is the primary source of healthcare coverage for pregnant women nationwide, providing care from preconception through postpartum. By age 18, 75 percent of American children will have relied on Medicaid or CHIP.
The same law slashed funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and eliminated the full Child Tax Credit for millions of low-income and immigrant families. Trump also proposed cutting funding by nearly one-third for the Office on Women's Health, further undermining efforts to address the country's maternal mortality crisis.
In a related development, House Democrats have formed a new anti-corruption caucus targeting Trump's ethics record, while a federal judge upheld Trump's mail-in ballot restrictions amid Democratic legal challenges. Meanwhile, the administration's focus on expanding fertility benefits contrasts sharply with its broader cuts to healthcare and social safety nets, raising questions about its true priorities for American families.
