This month, Protect Our Care is highlighting policy proposals to fix health care now. This week’s focus is on how Democrats have championed the Momnibus legislation and other policies to help fight the nation’s devastating maternal health crisis. Donald Trump and Republicans left millions of moms across the country without a lifeline when they cut $1 trillion from Medicaid to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. They also ripped away Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits from millions of people, hiking premium costs across the board.
American women suffer the highest rates of maternal mortality among high-income countries and rely on Medicaid as the largest financier of births. With 80 percent of these deaths being entirely preventable, the GOP’s draconian cuts to health will only increase the disparity in maternal mortality rates and lead to more needless deaths among mothers and children. These cuts have caused over 50 maternity wards to close or announce closure, many of which are in low income and rural areas, putting care out of reach for countless new and expecting moms. By slashing Medicaid and letting premiums skyrocket, Republicans are recklessly exacerbating a maternal health crisis and putting millions of lives at unnecessary risk.
That’s why Democrats are fighting to reverse the largest cuts to health care in history and improve the health of new moms in our nation. Representatives Lauren Underwood and Alma Adams and Senator Cory Booker reintroduced the Momnibus to put moms first, addressing maternal mortality, morbidity, and disparities that affect mothers of all backgrounds.
Learn more about Protect Our Care’s “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now” campaign, calling on lawmakers to take immediate action on commonsense solutions that Americans are asking for, here.
The Momnibus Would Save Lives. The Momnibus package would make critical investments in the social determinants of health that affect pregnant people and new moms and families and support moms, including by supporting maternal mental health and investments in research to reduce preventable causes of maternal deaths. Representatives Lauren Underwood and Alma Adams, who are the co-chairs of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, and Senator Cory Booker reintroduced the Momnibus this past March to fight maternal mortality, morbidity, and disparities that affect mothers of all backgrounds. The Momnibus is comprised of 14 different pieces of legislation that are aimed at improving maternal health and reducing mortality rates. It includes:
- Critical investments in social determinants of health that affect new and expectant moms;
- Extending WIC eligibility during postpartum and breastfeeding periods;
- Funding for community-based organizations working to improve maternal health outcomes;
- Funding for maternal health care for veterans;
- Investments in a culturally competent perinatal workforce;
- Improved data collection processes and quality measures to understand the causes of the maternal health crisis in America;
- Support for maternal mental health conditions;
- Improved maternal health care and support for incarcerated moms;
- Invest in digital tools to improve maternal health outcomes in underserved areas;
- Promote innovative payment methods to incentivize high-quality maternal care;
- Investments in federal programs to support maternal health during public health emergencies;
- Investments in community-based initiatives to reduce climate change-related risks for moms and babies;
- Investments in research to reduce preventable causes of maternal deaths; and
- Promotion of maternal vaccinations to protect healthy moms and babies.
REVERSE REPUBLICAN CUTS
Republicans Cut Moms’ Medicaid Lifeline. Medicaid pays for around 41 percent of all births in the United States, but this number increases to 65 percent of births from Black mothers and nearly 60 percent of births from Latina mothers. Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women across the country rely on Medicaid for prenatal visits, ultrasounds, and screenings for conditions such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and postpartum depression, but face loss of coverage thanks to the massive cuts to health care in H.R. 1. Medicaid coverage is also at risk for the 1 in 5 women of reproductive age who rely on the program’s family planning services, including contraceptives, gynecologic exams and testing, and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. This coverage helps women of color in particular. Black women are 71 percent more likely to die from cervical cancer than their white counterparts, and Black and Latina women make up 80 percent of women living with HIV or AIDS.
Maternity Wards Are Disappearing Across the Country. Over 1,000 hospitals, nursing homes, maternity wards, and other critical providers nationwide have shuttered, are at risk of closing, or have cut essential services, forcing more Americans to travel further for maternity care and face longer wait times in emergency rooms to get care for complications. At a time when 35 percent of counties already lack birthing hospitals and birth centers. GOP cuts have shuttered 47 more labor and delivery units, 10 more have announced closure, and over 140 are at risk of closing their doors. 1 in 3 counties currently do not have a single birthing facility or obstetric clinician. That number is growing thanks to Republican health care cuts. Medicaid cuts have also stopped moms from having the support they need during childbirth. Moms nationwide are being left without the care they need due to Medicaid cuts.
Republican Premium Hikes Put ACA Coverage Out of Reach for Millions of Women. During the 2025 open enrollment period for marketplace coverage, over 12.6 million women signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. However, Republicans have made this coverage incredibly unaffordable by eliminating premium tax credits. Across the country, women and their families are seeing their premiums skyrocket to double, triple, and even quadruple the cost. Women are being forced to decide between reducing their families’ coverage and leaving them vulnerable to huge medical bills and debt, cutting back on food, clothing, and other necessities, trying to find an extra job or working more hours, skipping or delaying paying other bills, or forgoing coverage altogether. A Georgia mom closed her small business to afford her son’s insulin. A Louisiana woman was forced to finish out her high-risk pregnancy without coverage at all. Over 2.5 million Americans were forced to drop health coverage altogether, and it will likely only get worse as the year progresses.
Meet the Mothers, Providers, and Hospital Executives Dealing With the Fallout of Republican Health Care Cuts
In Cecil County, Maryland, health care providers and community leaders are scrambling to find a solution after the closure of ChristianaCare Union Hospital’s maternity unit. Adam Streight, Cecil County Executive, explained how the closure will affect travel times, “Depending on where you’re at in the county, on a good day it’s a 45-minute trip…Most places in the county, you’re talking an hour or more.” Celia Karp, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, explained how every minute counts, “People who have pregnancy complications like gestational diabetes or hypertension, they’ll also be most affected by the closure […]because those types of health complications can escalate really quickly…Having to drive an extra 20 minutes or an extra hour to reach the next closest hospital with an obstetric care unit can really make a huge difference in whether moms and babies get the care they need.” [Delaware Business Now]
In Clark County, Nevada, the news that Henderson Hospital is closing its maternity and neonatal intensive care units is devastating the community. Expectant moms like Haley Nartker are being left with fewer options as care disappears in Nevada, “We are looking at people wanting to travel outside of their city lines even though they know that comes with an added risk,” she explained. Judy Domineck, a registered nurse, described the lengths families are going to access care, “Right now, I know families that have to drive to Salt Lake or to Los Angeles to get specialists for their children. It is only going to get worse.” [KSNV]
In New Hampshire, Edward D. Shanshala, CEO of Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, worries about the “cascading effect” if Androscoggin Valley Hospital, the only critical access hospital in Coös County that delivers babies, closes its maternity ward. He noted that Republicans’ cuts come at a “difficult” time in rural health care, saying his organization feels the “tension and pressure.” He added that not only is losing a maternity ward devastating to the community, but it “makes it much more difficult” when recruiting new hires “if I have to say, ‘In an entire county, there is no place to deliver a baby in a hospital setting.’” [New Hampshire Bulletin]
In Newark, New York, Emily Salerno worried over where she would give birth after her local hospital, which was just minutes away from her home, announced it was ending labor and delivery services. She was due around the third week of August, right when the hospital was stopping deliveries, which meant she may have to drive anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to the next closest hospital. She said the closure was adding “a lot of stress toward the end of [her] pregnancy that shouldn’t be there” [Rochester First]