The Trump administration has made drastic cuts to federal programs that protect the health of Americans, putting women’s health at particular risk. Job cuts described as a “bloodbath,” along with restructuring within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will dismantle programs that support women’s health, including those that focus on chronic and infectious disease, injuries, mental health, genetic disorders, substance use, and health disparities. These cuts will scale back efforts to prevent, treat, and discover cures for illnesses and diseases, including many that affect women’s reproductive health.
The Trump administration is also making communities across the country less safe and healthy for pregnant women and their families by basing public health policy on false information. The administration also has made it harder to access family planning, fertility treatment, and maternal health care, and it has closed off access to abortion care and maternal health disease prevention and detection.
Simultaneously, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025, will make historic cuts to Medicaid and undermine the Affordable Care Act, stripping millions of American women of their health insurance coverage. Drastic cuts to Medicaid, along with a provision in the law that prohibits federal Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, will disproportionately affect adult women, who comprised 52 percent of the total Medicaid population and the majority of adults covered by Medicaid in 2023.
The Trump administration’s cuts to public health infrastructure threaten programs that support women and healthy pregnancies
The administration’s gutting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) includes slashing public health programs and eliminating about 2,400 jobs (460 of which were later reinstated). The majority of CDC employees in the Division of Reproductive Health, which promotes reproductive, maternal, and infant health, have been terminated, including cuts to the branch devoted to women’s health and fertility, the elimination of the team that updates and disseminates contraceptive best practices to providers, and the elimination of the CDC’s Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Surveillance team. This comes in spite of President Trump’s executive order to expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and his self-proclaimed status as the “fertilization president.” Experts warn that these cuts will “make it more dangerous to be pregnant in the United States.”
Experts warn that these cuts will “make it more dangerous to be pregnant in the United States.”
The Hill, "HHS layoffs undercut Trump’s pledge to be ‘fertilization president’" (2025).
The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal would go further and cut the HHS budget by more than 26 percent compared with FY 2025, including shuttering cancer screening and prevention programs. The HHS Division of Cancer Prevention and Control’s National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program has provided more than 16 million screening exams and has funded more than 50 cancer registries across different states and regions to help identify cancer trends and direct resources most effectively.
These cuts to women’s pregnancy research will have an outsize impact on women of color. For instance, the Division of Reproductive Health has been responsible for issuing contraceptive guidelines for patients with sickle cell disease, which increases the risk of serious pregnancy complications and disproportionately occurs in Black or African American people. The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), also closed down by the administration, has tracked and measured progress on improving the health of women and infants at high risk for health problems for more than 35 years, including tracking worse maternal health outcomes among Black women compared with white women. Trump’s budget proposal would also eliminate funding for state maternal mortality review committees, which review mortality data to inform recommendations for preventing future pregnancy-related deaths.
In addition, the Trump administration has pursued health policy informed by misinformation, threatening access to critical pregnancy care. In an unprecedented move, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unilaterally decided to remove COVID-19 vaccines from the CDC’s immunization recommendations for pregnant people. In doing so, he failed to consult experts, follow established protocol for vaccine recommendations, or adhere to scientific studies indicating not only that pregnancy raises the risk of severe COVID-19 but also that the vaccine is safe and effective for pregnant people. As a result of Kennedy’s decision, the CDC’s immunization schedule no longer includes COVID-19 vaccine guidance or recommendations for pregnancy, which has implications for insurance coverage, putting pregnant people at further risk. Although providers have called for insurers to continue to cover the vaccine, some pregnant women have already reported being turned away from pharmacies when trying to get a provider-recommended COVID-19 vaccination.
The Trump administration’s federal health research agenda threatens basic prevention, treatment, and cures for diseases that affect women and reproductive health
The Trump administration’s cuts to research on Alzheimer’s, menopause, uterine fibroids, and pregnancy risk will all have outsize impacts on women’s reproductive health. For example, the administration canceled funding for a researcher at Columbia University who studied the biomechanics of uterine fibroids. Uterine fibroids affect up to 77 percent of aging women and can cause severe pain, bleeding, and infertility. HSS staff have also been directed to disapprove grants that include certain words, including “women,” which will stall understanding of, and treatment for, diseases and conditions that affect women more or differently than they affect men. These cuts—pursued under the guise of efficiency—would produce the opposite: According to one estimate, an investment of $350 million in research focused on women could generate $14 billion for the economy by increasing longevity, reducing disease, and lessening work disruptions.
These cuts—pursued under the guise of efficiency—would produce the opposite: According to one estimate, an investment of $350 million in research focused on women could generate $14 billion for the economy by increasing longevity, reducing disease, and lessening work disruptions.
The WHAM Report.
Other research grants are being canceled if they provide payments to foreign scientific collaborators. This includes ongoing collaborative research between Emory University and partners in Denmark to identify women who are at higher risk of life-threatening breast cancer recurrence. This research would have enabled doctors to treat women in advance of recurrence, preserving their health, but the collaboration is unlikely to continue. Close to 317,000 U.S. women are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer every year, with more than 42,000 cases resulting in death.
The Trump administration’s research agenda also sidelines input from women and people of color, which raises concerns of future failure to invest in studies of diseases that disproportionately or differently affect them. Women were disproportionately fired from Boards of Scientific Counselors, which are responsible for rating the quality of scientific research across the National Institutes of Health. Only 6 percent of white men serving on the boards were fired, compared with about 25 percent of all women. Close to 40 percent of the boards’ Black and Latino members were fired. Research shows that more balanced representation leads to more robust solutions and advancements in science.
The Trump administration is making homes, neighborhoods, and the environment less healthy and safe for pregnant women
The administration’s attacks on environmental and public health protections will have a disproportionate impact on reproductive and maternal health. The administration has dismantled regulations to reduce pollution and canceled nearly 800 grants intended to help communities improve air and water quality. In both instances, pregnant women will bear a great burden. In addition to the general adverse health impacts of environmental pollution—such as heart disease, respiratory disease, and mental health conditions—air pollution is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes including stillbirth, reduced fetal growth, increased risk of preterm birth, and preeclampsia. Climate change-induced extreme heat, for example, which becomes more dangerous every year, increases pregnant women’s risk of severe illness and hospitalization, life-threatening pregnancy complications, and maternal death.
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Other recent cuts to federal grants are threatening efforts to improve neighborhood conditions across the country. A June 2025 Center for American Progress analysis shows that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has cut at least $3 billion from research, education, and other programs that would improve women’s health, safety, and workforce participation. The Hmong American Women’s Association, which advocates on behalf of domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, is one example of an organization that relies on federal grants for more than half of its funding. Cuts have required its already small staff to be reduced by more than half.
Programs to promote maternal and child health at home are also at risk. Trump’s proposed FY 2026 budget would cut $1.73 billion from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which has already lost up to 600 workers in DOGE layoffs. The HRSA Maternal and Child Health Bureau funds family planning and maternal and child health care programs such as the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, which supports families in promoting healthy child-rearing, prevents child neglect, and helps parents find stable employment or continue their education.
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The One Big Beautiful Bill Act threatens financing for reproductive and maternal health
The OBBBA includes significant changes to the Medicaid program and will undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) indicate that up to 16 million more people would lose their health insurance by 2034 as a result of the law and upcoming ACA changes. The CBO estimated that 5.2 million of those people are adults who would lose Medicaid coverage by 2034 due to work reporting requirements. Cuts to these essential programs will disproportionately affect low-income Americans while delivering tax breaks to the nation’s wealthiest.
Adding unnecessary and burdensome work requirements to Medicaid will compound the threat to women’s health, particularly for low-income women. These policies impose red tape without actually promoting employment outcomes. Medicaid is crucial for family caregivers and their loved ones. Women who may already be working low-wage jobs, caring for children or aging family members, or dealing with chronic health conditions may have to jump through unnecessary hoops to access care. In fact, prior research shows that work requirements often result in individuals losing coverage due to reporting errors; lack of access to internet, computer literacy, or reliable child care; or simply the inability to meet these imposed arbitrary thresholds, thus creating ripple effects that harm entire families and communities. Prior research shows that even people who qualify for exemptions often erroneously lose coverage, something that will be especially damaging to parents, pregnant women, and caregivers.
The OBBBA also includes a provision to prohibit state Medicaid payments to health care nonprofits that received more than $800,000 in federal funding in 2023 and that also provide abortions, which would effectively defund Planned Parenthood. In many areas, Planned Parenthood clinics are the only way for women to access sexual and reproductive health care. Defunding Planned Parenthood puts about 200 health centers in 24 states at risk of closure. Notably, Medicaid is the largest source of public funding for family planning services. Under federal law, state Medicaid programs must cover family planning services at no cost. This includes essential services such as contraception, prenatal and postpartum care, sexually transmitted infection (STI) screenings, and cancer screenings for more than 13 million women of reproductive age. Women of color, particularly Black women and Latinas, are more likely to rely on Medicaid for reproductive health care—including 31 percent of Black women and 27 percent of Hispanic or Latina women, compared with just 16 percent of white women. Therefore, the law’s cuts to the program, including its elimination of funding for Planned Parenthood, will disproportionately erect barriers to care for women of color.
Women of color, particularly Black women and Latinas, are more likely to rely on Medicaid for reproductive health care—including 31 percent of Black women and 27 percent of Hispanic or Latina women, compared with just 16 percent of white women.
Protect Our Care, "FACT SHEET: Medicaid Works for Women & Children" (2024); Planned Parenthood Action Fund, "Medicaid and Reproductive Health."
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Finally, the OBBBA’s Medicaid cuts will threaten the financial sustainability of at least 300 rural hospitals. Research from Georgetown University shows that around 23 percent of women of reproductive age living in rural areas are covered by Medicaid, compared with around 20 percent of women in metropolitan areas.
Conclusion
The cumulative effects of the Trump administration’s attacks on women’s health are clear. Women across the country will be harmed by drastic cuts to the Medicaid program and diminished access to health care; dismantled programs that would have helped identify, prevent, and treat diseases and conditions that disproportionately affect women; and environments that threaten their reproductive and maternal health, risking their well-being and safety.