PUBLISHED 7/13/2026 by Jennifer Klein and Stephanie Ogorzalek
To address the maternal health crisis in America, Washington must invest in a proactive agenda of healthcare access, affordability and equity.
American healthcare was fundamentally reshaped a year ago with the passage of H.R. 1. The sweeping federal budget reconciliation bill President Donald Trump called the One Big Beautiful Bill was signed into law on July 4, 2025.
One year later, the country’s sexual and reproductive health system is in crisis, and we are at a devastating inflection point, leading all high-income countries in a statistic that should shame every lawmaker: maternal mortality.
At 17.9 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, U.S. women are dying from pregnancy-related causes at rates unheard of in peer nations—even though medical professionals agree that more than 80 percent of these deaths are entirely preventable.
Yet, rather than investing in evidence-based solutions, the Trump administration has spent its tenure cutting healthcare funding, targeting essential care providers like Planned Parenthood health centers and limiting women’s healthcare choices. The May launch of Moms.gov is a prime example of this superficial approach. Instead of offering comprehensive medical guidance, the site acts as a directory for “crisis pregnancy centers.” These facilities often lack on-staff medical professionals, and many are run by anti-abortion activists with the goal of steering people away from legitimate care. Notably, the website completely omits information on highly effective, evidence-based methods of birth control.
While the administration points to targeted efforts like its Rural Health Transformation program as progress, such isolated grant initiatives are a drop in the bucket compared to the systemic dismantling of the healthcare safety net. Under the weight of H.R. 1’s sweeping cuts to Medicaid and its provision that blocked thousands of patients from using their Medicaid insurance at Planned Parenthood health centers for a year, the damage to our healthcare infrastructure has been swift and significant. Nearly 30 Planned Parenthood health centers across the country have been forced to close since the “defunding,” cutting off patients from services such as prenatal and postpartum care, STI testing and treatment and other essential care. Less care means worse health outcomes.
To truly address this health emergency, we must invest in three evidence-based pillars: access, affordability and equity.
Expanding Access in Maternity Care Deserts
When trusted safety net providers are forced out of communities, the harmful consequences are immediate. Research shows that reducing the presence of Planned Parenthood health centers by 20 percent is associated with an 8 percent increase in the maternal mortality rate. Where these centers close, maternal mortality can spike by up to 15 percent. More than 30 percent of U.S. counties have no obstetric care, birth centers or providers.
Data from this past year reveal the immediate, tangible loss of preventive care across the health system following the enactment of H.R. 1 with its “defund” provision.
- Planned Parenthood visits for IUDs and other long-acting reversible contraception dropped by 26 percent, while dispensed birth control packs fell by nearly 25 percent.
- Breast exam visits fell by 20 percent—increasing the risk of delayed cancer detection.
- STI testing declined by 10 percent.
- Two-thirds of Planned Parenthood health center closures occurred in rural, medically underserved or health professional shortage areas, forcing patients to travel farther or forgo care entirely.
Safeguarding Affordability
Nearly 40 percent of all births nationwide and nearly half of the births in rural areas are covered by Medicaid. One in five American women of reproductive age is enrolled in Medicaid, and nearly half live below the poverty line.
We know what works. Under the Biden administration, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 allowed states to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage from six weeks to one year. The states that expanded Medicaid saw immediate drops in maternal mortality—and today, 49 states and the District of Columbia have adopted this expansion. Instead of building on this success, H.R. 1 cut Medicaid dramatically, resulting in an estimated 25 percent drop—more than 250,000 visits—in Medicaid patients accessing Planned Parenthood health centers. The Trump administration has also committed to exploring cuts to Title X, the nation’s family planning program.
H.R. 1 has also shifted financial burdens onto states. Fifteen states were forced to scramble $400 million in emergency funds just to preserve basic services for displaced Planned Parenthood Medicaid patients. In states that failed to provide full stopgap funding, health centers closed at double the rate. Stripping Planned Parenthood health centers’ Medicaid reimbursement funding stopped women from getting prenatal care, birth control and other preventive care—a critical loss given that access to contraception and the prevention of unintended pregnancies can reduce the risk of life-threatening complications.
Confronting the Equity Gap
Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women—a horrifying disparity that persists even when adjusted for income, education and healthcare access. Recent surveys confirm that Black women consistently experience higher rates of mistreatment and ignored symptoms during pregnancy and childbirth.
Moms.gov is silent on racial disparities—a reflection of broader Trump administration efforts to ignore systemic racism, roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and dismantle pregnancy risk-monitoring databases—making it harder to deploy solutions that benefit the most at-risk moms.
A Real Healthcare Agenda for American Moms
To truly save the lives of American moms, we must adopt a policy framework rooted in medical expertise, research and human rights:
- Protect and Restore the Safety Net: Fully fund Title X and ensure support for safety net providers. Concurrently, establish federal safeguards to ensure that trusted providers are not arbitrarily disqualified from Medicaid reimbursement for political reasons. Removing these high-volume providers cuts off essential care for patients with low incomes and shifts massive, unsustainable financial burdens directly onto state and local health systems.
- Protect Coverage: Enforce the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage mandate on private insurers and work with the only remaining state to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage to a full year.
- Prioritize Equity and Medical Accuracy: End the Hyde Amendment and subsequent executive orders that restrict federal insurance from covering abortion care, disproportionately harming low-income women, Black women and Latinas. Reinstate federal programs to train providers on implicit bias, and mandate that federal platforms like Moms.gov provide comprehensive, evidence-based and medically accurate information.
It is time to stop offering American moms empty, unfunded promises, and start providing the affordable, equitable and accessible healthcare they need to stay alive.
