The Hidden Cost of Abortion Bans
How lawmakers force birth only to then cut basic needs that support healthy families
This piece is co-written with poverty lawyer, Salaam Bhatti, creator of A Paycheck Away. Subscribe to his work to start your journey towards ending poverty by learning about issues, exploring solutions, and ways you can act.
Poverty isn't an unsolvable puzzle; it's a policy choice - one that Congress has the power to solve.
In the United States, the same lawmakers advocating for abortion bans simultaneously undermine essential support systems for mothers and families. This coordinated approach exacerbates poverty and maternal health disparities, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities while benefiting corporations.
Rather than musing about how to untangle the complex web of these systemic issues over forthcoming decades, we need to realize that we can dismantle the structures that perpetuate poverty starting right now. Let’s dive in…
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Let’s be clear: in the U.S., we are forcing people to give birth while simultaneously dismantling the very systems that support parents and children. Take Mississippi — the state has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, enforces one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the nation and has one of the highest rates of poverty in the country (18%). This is not an accident.
Across the country, over one-third of U.S. counties are now classified as maternity care apartheid zones — areas with no hospitals or birth centers offering obstetric care and no OB-GYNs or midwives at all. These aren’t geographic anomalies. While some call these areas maternal health ‘deserts’, deserts are natural. There is nothing natural about this. This is man-made — more accurately, lawmaker-made.
Meanwhile, 10 states refuse to expand Medicaid, leaving over 1.6 million adults without healthcare. As a result, many new mothers lose postpartum coverage just 60 days after giving birth. This is especially dangerous considering that Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, even when controlling for income and education. Guess which state has refused to expand Medicaid? Mississippi.
Mississippi isn’t alone though — the entire southeastern region of the U.S. has been equally brutal in its neglect to expand Medicaid.
And yet, despite the heightened risk, anti-abortion lawmakers offer no maternal health agenda. No national paid family leave. No guaranteed paid sick leave. Every major effort to pass such policies has been blocked — often by the same legislators advocating for abortion bans.
It doesn’t stop at healthcare. Over 3 million children are projected to lose access to care in 2025 when pandemic-era funding expires. Programs like Head Start, which provide meals, health screenings, and early education for children in poverty, are facing severe budget cuts — even though they’re lifelines for parents trying to stay in school or work toward a better future.
Housing, too, is increasingly out of reach. Housing costs now account for more than 30% of income for over 21 million renter households. That’s nearly 50% of all renters in America being rent-burdened. In states with abortion bans, guess what - affordable housing options are scarce and tenant protections are minimal. Take Tennessee, for example: the average rent is $1,513 per month, while the state minimum wage is still just $7.25 per hour. That adds up to $1,160 per month pre-tax for someone working full time — not even enough to cover rent, let alone food, childcare, or healthcare.
These lawmakers also don’t think low-income people deserve thermostats. Via Project 2025, a sweeping far-right policy blueprint for the Trump administration, Republicans seek to eliminate the one program - the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) - that helps households pay for A/C during the summer and heat during the winter. A leaked memo even showed LIHEAP funding being eliminated from Health and Humans Services’ budget. Fortunately, Trump can’t do that unilaterally; it has to be defunded through Congress. Right now, there is nothing moving in Congress that will cut LIHEAP…not yet at least.
It’s a cruel cycle: lawmakers force birth while systematically cutting the very lifelines that families rely on to survive. And who benefits? Corporations like Walmart do, by keeping wages low enough that employees often qualify for public assistance like SNAP and then go back and spend that assistance in the same store. In 2013, Wal-Mart pulled in over $13 billion from SNAP benefits alone. It’s a closed loop of corporate profit and government subsidization, while families are left struggling to survive.
This isn’t just bad policy. It’s by design. And it's happening right now. The silver lining for man-made problems is that they are absolutely solvable.
Talk the Talk
One of the most critical actions you can take as an activist is to educate your community on the issues you care about. Here are your top-line talking points to discuss this week in your circles:
Lawmakers enforcing abortion bans are simultaneously dismantling support systems essential for maternal and child well-being like housing and rent.
Maternal mortality and poverty are not inevitable; they result from deliberate policy decisions.
The prevalence of maternity care apartheid zones is a man-made crisis, not a natural occurrence.
Access to paid family leave, affordable childcare, and stable housing are integral components of reproductive justice.
Initiatives like Project 2025 represent coordinated efforts to undermine social support structures, exacerbating crises for vulnerable populations.
Walk the Walk
Using our "Talk the Talk" bullets to educate friends, family, and your community is the first step in your activist journey. You can level up your advocacy even more through the following steps:
Send a Message to Congress: we cannot force single moms and older women to work for food - personalize and send this message.
Support Guaranteed Income: find your lawmakers (state, federal) who support guaranteed income and support their efforts. If none in the state support it, then raise it with a delegate or senator who has covered similar pieces of legislation.
Organize locally: Join or support coalitions advocating for federal paid family leave, housing justice, and Medicaid expansion in your area. Do you live in one of the ten states without Medicaid expansion and want to get involved? Comment your state’s name and we’ll get you in touch with local advocates!
Hold corporations accountable: Urge “big box” stores to provide living wages and reduce reliance on public assistance programs for their employees by participating in boycotts and contacting corporate leadership and shareholders with the demands.
Support organizations promoting birth equity: Contribute to or volunteer with groups led by and for Black women that focus on maternal health and reproductive justice. This list is a good place to start!
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