The War on Mothers

Government cuts send a clear message

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

First they came for our bodies, when they overturned Roe v. Wade. Then they came for our children, laying off staff at the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Now they are coming for our birth stories—the best evidence we have about why our country has such a high rate of maternal deaths.

This month, the Trump administration put all the people responsible for conducting a key survey on the health of new moms on administrative leave. Here’s how STAT explained the loss:

The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, or PRAMS, is a dataset of survey responses from people who give birth, both before and after birth. The dataset has offered some of the most detailed insights into maternal health in the U.S., and has become an invaluable asset for researchers trying to better understand the country’s disproportionately high maternal mortality rates.

This screenshot from the CDC’s website says new data collection should start this month, but all of the staff have lost their jobs.

This survey data is used for all kinds of local programs, from increasing access to midwives and prenatal care to tracking trends in postpartum depression. “Without the data, we can’t even measure if there is a problem, because it informs us of who is being impacted more and where resources should be directed,” a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employee told The Washington Post.

I try not to be alarmist, but the disappearance of this kind of pregnancy data affects everything this newsletter is trying to fix. If we do not survey mothers, listen to them, and analyze their responses, how can we ever improve the system?

This is all part of Robert F. Kennedy’s efforts to reorganize the Department of Health and Human Services and “Make American Healthy Again.” Meanwhile, teams studying fertility and IVF treatments at the CDC have also been put on leave, despite Trump calling himself the “King of IVF.”

It would be funny if these policies weren’t affecting the life and health of every woman of reproductive age. The internet is now full of people ridiculing the $5,000 “baby bonus” the White House is considering paying mothers to have more kids. Such proposals feel sleazy, insulting, in light of recent government cuts. Like a man who violates your body and then leaves a check by the door.