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reproductive healthcare
Don’t Be Fooled: Trump’s Attacks on Medicaid Are an All-Out War on Reproductive Justice
Attacks on Medicaid are just the latest tactic used by anti-choice politicians to strip us of our bodily autonomy and further deny us access to lifesaving reproductive healthcare.
Apr 15, 2025
When U.S. Congress recently approved a budget proposing nearly $880 billion in spending cuts to execute President Donald Trump’s agenda, which will almost certainly mean funding tax cuts for the wealthy, it didn’t just target unnecessary spending—it targeted our healthcare.
Republicans claim this is about combating fraud, but we know the truth. Let’s be clear: Slashing Medicaid by billions of dollars is a direct attack on critically needed health services, as it covers essential healthcare like doctors visits, hospital care, cancer screenings, reproductive healthcare, and more. These cuts threaten not only our access to care, but our fundamental rights to live and thrive.
Attacks on Medicaid will impact millions of Americans, but will disproportionately harm marginalized groups, including people with disabilities; the elderly; low-income families; and most severely Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people. Given the wide-ranging impact these cuts will have on people’s ability to control their health, bodies, lives, and reproduction, this isn’t just a healthcare issue—it’s a matter of reproductive justice.
Expanding Medicaid in more states, increasing access to doula care, and committing to researching racial discrimination in the healthcare system are just a few of the steps we must take.
Medicaid is a lifeline in addressing the deep inequities in healthcare coverage, and any cuts to this vital program threaten to unravel the limited progress we’ve fought so hard to make. Currently, Medicaid funds almost two-thirds of Black births, provides coverage for almost a third of Black women, and insures over half of Black girls. The fact of the matter is that Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people have the most to lose, and it’s undeniable that Medicaid cuts will only exacerbate the Black maternal mortality crisis our communities are already struggling to survive.
It is true that providing lifesaving healthcare to millions of people comes at a cost. But when politicians start looking for ways to trim the federal budget, Medicaid is often first on the chopping block. And yet, slashing Medicaid has proven politically impossible—because the truth is, 8 in 10 Americans overwhelmingly support it. People like being able to see a doctor when they need to, and they recognize Medicaid is essential in making that possible.
Despite its popularity, cuts to Medicaid may soon become reality because of decades of relentless attacks on reproductive justice by our elected leaders. From forced sterilization, to shackling women during birth, from the Hyde Amendment and to overturning the federal right to an abortion, this country has an insidious history of reproductive abuse—particularly against Black women. Now, attacks on Medicaid are just the latest tactic used by anti-choice politicians to strip us of our bodily autonomy and further deny us access to lifesaving reproductive healthcare.
Access to healthcare should never be determined by income or zip code, but these cuts force states to make up this deficit by either raising taxes or slashing education budgets, further burdening our communities. Rural Americans, particularly, will suffer as rural hospitals often rely heavily on Medicaid funding to stay afloat. These cuts will worsen maternal healthcare deserts, which have 1 in 6 Black babies born in areas with limited or no access to essential maternal care.
What’s worse, adding “work requirements,” which were narrowly avoided under Trump’s first administration, will also be used as a tool to remove people from Medicaid. Not because they are not working, but because new bureaucratic reporting requirements will create confusion, and ultimately cause people, including people with disabilities and the elderly, to be disqualified from coverage.
In reality, 92% of Medicaid beneficiaries under 65 are employed, debunking the harmful stereotype that people on Medicaid are not working. There is a long history of scapegoating poor people for receiving social services and adding increased burdens to show they “deserve” help. This is the same racist welfare reform narrative we have heard for decades—the false “welfare queen” myth, used to police Black women, incarcerate Black mothers, and justify cuts to social services.
Make no mistake, Black women will bear the brunt of these Medicaid cuts. Yes, our healthcare system, including Medicaid, has flaws, but slashing coverage for the most vulnerable Americans is not the solution. During a time when access to reproductive healthcare is under attack like never before and Black maternal mortality rates are still continuing to rise, we need policy solutions rooted in reproductive justice.
This means centering Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people who are disproportionately impacted by Medicaid cuts and the policies driving these changes. Expanding Medicaid in more states, increasing access to doula care, and committing to researching racial discrimination in the healthcare system are just a few of the steps we must take. Our lives—and our future—depend on it.
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Lawmakers Ruin Lives When They Restrict Reproductive Care
They aren’t “pro-life.” They aren’t saving lives. All too often, when women can’t get miscarriage treatments or other emergency care, they’re ending lives.
May 23, 2024
We all deserve the right to make informed decisions about our own health. That right has been in danger for years—and since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, it’s under siege.
I grew up in the South with an abstinence-only education—if you can call that an “education.”
This approach, which teaches nothing about sex except not to have it, is an utter failure. It’s been proven to have no effect on reducing adolescent pregnancies. And couples who’ve received abstinence-only messaging use less birth control and STD protection than couples who’ve been taught about them.
In states like mine where care has now been prohibited, it’s not the pregnant person, their family, and doctors who determine their care.
When I went to college and became aware of the harmful effects of abstinence-only “education,” I joined a peer-based sex-ed group on campus. We were health and sex positive. But abortion was still only discussed in the shadows, in hushed tones, if at all.
But now, like sex ed, these discussions need to be out in the open.
When my birth control failed, I became pregnant. My now-husband and I were in a long-distance relationship while he finished a paramedic program. We were considering marriage, but we weren’t there yet and didn’t have enough money to raise a child. We made what was, for us, the responsible decision.
The truth is, all kinds of people get abortions. More than half are already parents. People who identify as “pro-life” get abortions, and people who are married get abortions. And the vast majority of Americans support the right to choose an abortion.
After my legal abortion, I began volunteering at an abortion clinic in Florida. Years later, I was offered a job at the Yellowhammer Fund, which provides support to pregnant people seeking reproductive care and family planning in Alabama and across the South.
Reproductive healthcare wasn’t easy even before the Supreme Court reversed Roe, especially in the South.
For instance, in Alabama, we had only three healthcare providers willing to provide abortion care. The state imposed stricter than national average gestational limits, a two-visit prerequisite, and a 48-hour waiting period. If the situation was an emergency, the documentation for a medical exception was extremely difficult to obtain.
Now it’s even worse. Not only can we not provide care, we can’t help patients cross state lines to get it elsewhere. We can’t even help patients understand where and how they can receive the abortion care they need. Our speech has been criminalized.
In states like mine where care has now been prohibited, it’s not the pregnant person, their family, and doctors who determine their care. It’s ideologically extreme lawmakers with no medical background or knowledge of individual circumstances who dictate those deeply personal decisions.
We’re doing what we can. For now, we can direct people seeking abortion care to published articles where they can find information. We can still help families with legal challenges and provide safe sex kits.
Importantly, we’re also training community members across the rural South to be advocates and supportive resources for those seeking reproductive justice. And the Yellowhammer Fund has launched a lawsuit to restore our right to help clients find abortion care, and there is some hopeful movement.
But we also need lawmakers to know that every decision they make restricting reproductive care is life-ruining. They aren’t “pro-life.” They aren’t saving lives. All too often, when women can’t get miscarriage treatments or other emergency care, they’re ending lives.
Midwives and birthing centers need to be free to care for their patients in ways that maximize that patient’s health and family, free of state control and threats of prison. This is a message that the majority of Americans support. We need to make sure lawmakers listen.
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With 50,000 Pregnant People in Gaza, Child Advocates and Birth Workers Call for Cease-Fire
One doctor who received dozens of calls from pregnant women unable to reach health centers warned that "the lack of access to healthcare and treatment puts their lives in danger and may lead to death."
Oct 25, 2023
As health officials in Gaza said Wednesday that the healthcare system in the blockaded enclave is now "completely out of service," human rights advocates including birth workers demanded a cease-fire to protect the estimated 50,000 pregnant people living under siege in the open-air prison, where Israel has been bombing civilian targets for nearly three weeks while claiming to be attacking Hamas.
The Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association (PFPPA) warned days after the airstrikes began that 37,000 women would likely be forced to give birth without electricity or medical supplies, because Israel promptly cut off access to fuel and other essentials after Hamas launched a surprise attack on October 7.
That fear is already being realized in hospitals across the enclave, which is home to about 2 million people, half of whom are children.
Walid Abu Hatab, an obstetrics and gynecology medical consultant at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, told Al Jazeera Wednesday that among other dangers, pregnant women face an increased risk of contracting illnesses as a growing number of people from northern Gaza are crowded into shelters in southern areas—a "health and environment disaster," Abu Hatab said.
"There are women who have been displaced from their places of residence to other areas, which means changing the health centers which had previously monitored their condition," he told Al Jazeera. "This makes access to them very difficult for them as they need primary care and follow-up sessions during the various periods of pregnancy."
"I received dozens of calls from pregnant women telling me that they were unable to reach health centers to provide them with treatment such as insulin and treatment for blood thinning for those with heart disease," Abu Hatab added. "The lack of access to healthcare and treatment puts their lives in danger and may lead to death, and this is what we are mainly concerned about."
"The bombs don't stop, and no human, tree, or stone has been spared. We don't know whose house will be destroyed or who will die. I just hope me and my child are safe."
Niveen al-Barbari, a pregnant woman who before October 7 was regularly seeing a specialist to monitor her high blood pressure and gestational diabetes, told the outlet she wonders daily where she will give birth and how she'll be able to do so safely as Israel's airstrikes show no sign of stopping and the country prepares for a likely ground invasion of Gaza.
"The bombs don't stop, and no human, tree, or stone has been spared," al-Barbari said. "We don't know whose house will be destroyed or who will die. I just hope me and my child are safe."
Al-Barbari is one victim of what Human Rights Watch called a "women's rights crisis" which is unfolding alongside the broader humanitarian catastrophe, with women and girls affected "in specific and devastating ways."
The group said the onslaught will "likely result in increased maternal and infant mortality and morbidity, undermining heath gains previously made in Palestine," as women are forced to go without prenatal treatment and in some cases, give birth without the help of medical professionals.
About 5,500 of the pregnant people in Gaza are expected to give birth in the next month, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which has resorted to deploying emergency delivery kits to at least half of those women due to Israel's refusal to allow humanitarian aid convoys into the enclave.
The kits include a bar of soap, a 40-square-inch plastic sheet, scissors to cut an umbilical cord, latex gloves, and an instruction pamphlet to guide women delivering on their own.
"Pregnancies do not stop during emergencies," said the UNFPA, warning that "devastating consequences" can arise when reproductive health is overlooked in violent conflicts.
Doctors in Gaza warned Wednesday that for women who do manage to give birth face harrowing prospects for their babies if they are born prematurely.
With fuel running out in the enclave's hospitals, premature babies in incubators "will die once the power goes," the BBC reported.
"The babies in these incubators are the same as my son who was in an incubator after birth," said Melanie Ward, CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). "But he was born in London and these babies are Palestinian. Every life is of equal value. Fuel must reach them."
MAP, which on Tuesday held a vigil in London for the 2,360 children who have been killed in Gaza so far, warned Wednesday that hospitals across Gaza have only hours to go until "total collapse."
Patients in critical condition will die without fuel, including 130 newborns in neonatal intensive care units. Cancer patients and people with kidney failure are also being placed at risk as they miss multiple rounds of chemotherapy and dialysis due to shortages of medical supplies.
"Harrowing scenes are unfolding in hospitals across Gaza," said Fikr Shalltoot, Gaza director for MAP. "Doctors have reported that patients who would otherwise live are dying. Hundreds of patients with horrific injuries from Israel's bombardment sit untreated and in agony in corridors. Surgeons operate without anesthetics and by torchlight."
"World leaders must act now to prevent the total collapse of Gaza's healthcare system," said Shalltoot. "The trickle of aid getting through is nowhere near enough to reverse this humanitarian catastrophe. People will die if fuel does not reach Gaza's hospitals today."
In the U.S. on Wednesday, birth workers called on the American College of Nurse-Midwives, the largest organization representing midwives in North America, to join international calls for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza in order to ensure the safety of pregnant people, unborn babies, newborns, and medical providers tasked with providing reproductive care.
"Hospitals have lost power and healthcare providers are having to decide whether to evacuate and abandon their patients or stay and perish in the onslaught of Israeli bombs, which have been indiscriminately aimed at homes, mosques, schools, and hospitals," wrote the birth workers. "We say the answer to grief is not more war and destruction. We say no to continued occupation, apartheid and genocide. We ask the American College of Nurse-Midwives to stand on the right side of history with Doctors Without Borders in calling for the bombing to stop."
The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) called for "peace, understanding, and the resolution of conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy" a week into Israel's siege, warning that "violence and war bear a heavy toll on vulnerable civilians, especially women, babies, and families with young children."
"The absence of proper maternal health services further exacerbates an already dangerous situation, jeopardizing the lives of women and newborns," said the ICM. "During conflicts, sexual violence, war's oldest, most silenced, and least condemned crime, becomes widespread. Everyday situations, like ensuring cleanliness and dignity during a regular menstrual cycle, become difficult or impossible. This is all in addition to the stress, loss, and trauma that communities are subjected to."
Israel's blocking of humanitarian aid and its continued bombardment pose "additional risks to health and life for women and girls," said Human Rights Watch. "Their suffering is one more reason that Israel's allies, especially the United States, should press it restore the flow of electricity and water, allow fuel into Gaza, and open its crossings for humanitarian aid."
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