Rescuing Children by Caring for Moms: Why the MOMs Act Secures America’s Future

By: Clare Ath, originally published May 10, 2025, The Washington Stand

America stands at a crossroads. Our nation faces rising abortion rates, widening gaps in maternal health care, and mounting economic pressures that threaten the well-being of families across the nation. Without bold action, these trends will erode women’s health, destabilize families, and undermine the prosperity of future generations.

The More Opportunities for Moms to Succeed (MOMS) Act, introduced this week by Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.), offers a compassionate, life-affirming solution to these challenges, empowering mothers and their children to thrive.

Recent months have marked a significant shift in America’s landscape. Thirteen Planned Parenthood facilities have closed: four in Illinois, four in Michigan, two in Utah, as well as facilities in California, New York, and Vermont. Just last week, the Boulder Abortion Clinic, operated for over 50 years by abortionist Warren Hern, who is responsible for ending the lives of over 42,000 preborn children, shuttered permanently. These closures are a triumph for the culture of life, signaling an opportunity for legislators to direct their focus toward supporting mothers facing unexpected pregnancies.

However, this is not the finish line; it is a call to action. Now is the time to provide robust, life-affirming resources, care, compassion, and practical support, so every woman can choose life with confidence and thrive.

While we are making progress, millions of women who want to embrace life for their children still face daunting barriers. Financial insecurity, lack of health care access, and the absence of paid family leave create overwhelming challenges. The United States remains the only developed nation without a national paid family leave mandate, often forcing millions of new mothers to return to work mere weeks after giving birth.

At the same time, maternal mortality rates remain stubbornly high, especially among black mothers, who are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than their white peers. Health care deserts stretch across nearly 40% of American counties, leaving countless mothers without vital prenatal and postpartum care.

These challenges are not hypothetical. They are the reality for millions of women across the nation, like “Tracey,” a military wife who faced an unexpected pregnancy and was suffering from hyperemesis, a severe form of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. Pregnant with her fifth child, overwhelmed, and frightened, Tracey wanted to choose life for her child but saw no way forward. It was only because of compassionate support and tangible resources from Human Coalition’s network of care that she found the help she needed to continue her pregnancy.

Tracey’s story should not be a rare exception. It should be the American norm: a nation where no mother feels abandoned, and every child has a fighting chance.

The MOMS Act recognizes these realities and responds with practical, life-affirming solutions. If we’re going to advance a culture of life in America, we need to implement commonsense policies. Policies that reverse our decline and empower the women in our country who are called to be mothers.

Some of the major highlights in the MOMs Act include:

• The establishment of Pregnancy.gov, a new federal clearinghouse designed to connect pregnant women to critical public and private resources right in their own communities. Expecting mothers deserve easy, transparent access to the help that already exists but is too often hidden behind bureaucracy or misinformation.
• Strengthening adoption as a loving alternative, by creating a national list of licensed adoption agencies.
• Empowering pregnancy resource centers by ensuring that they can access federal funding opportunities — while drawing a clear ethical line that grantees must not promote or carry out abortions.
• Expand telecare initiatives in rural, frontier, and underserved areas, ensuring that no mother is left without access to basic prenatal and postnatal services.
• Promote resources for paid family leave, offering mothers the time they need to bond with their newborns without sacrificing their financial stability.
• Allow child support obligations to begin during pregnancy. This ensures that the financial responsibility of parenting is recognized from the earliest stages of life, offering greater security to mothers and the children they carry.

The MOMS Act should be a bill that transcends the traditional pro-life, pro-abortion dichotomy, uniting Americans in a shared commitment to mothers and their children. That’s why abortion advocates who oppose this bill expose a glaring hypocrisy: they claim to champion women’s rights and health care equity but dismiss and vilify initiatives when they’re deemed to be pro-life measures.

Passing the MOMS Act is more than a legislative act — it is a moral imperative. It is an investment in the next generation, an affirmation that every life is valuable, and a statement that America’s future is worth fighting for.

Mothers like Tracey are looking for hope. They are looking for a nation that stands with them, offering the tools they need to choose life and to thrive. The MOMS Act answers that call, boldly and compassionately. It envisions an America where every child is welcomed, every mother is supported, and every family has the opportunity to flourish.

Clare Ath currently serves as the senior policy analyst at Human Coalition, one of the largest pro-life organizations in the nation that operates a network of telecare and brick-and-mortar women’s care clinics across the country.