The Medicaid and Reproductive Justice Collaborative

What Medicaid Cuts Mean for Reproductive Justice

Congress’s Medicaid cuts are devastating for reproductive justice. At their core, they are an exercise of state control over reproductive lives, passing discriminatory value judgements on who is worthy of health care, who deserves support, and who is left to fend for themselves. These cuts will tear coverage away from millions, disproportionately harming Black, Latine, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Indigenous people.

The Medicaid cuts harm people throughout the full reproductive lifecycle. For example, Medicaid expansion work requirements and immigrant eligibility cuts will lock people out of access to vital health services, hurting people who desire to form families and who are navigating pregnancies, living child-free, parenting children, and navigating menopause. The cuts will deny the right to parent with dignity and support, harming parental health coverage and, in turn, children’s health coverage. Without health insurance, communities will go without the vital sexual, reproductive, disability-related, and primary care they need to flourish.

The cuts are also collapsing the health care infrastructure that supports various components of reproductive justice. Medicaid eligibility losses will cause uncompensated care to soar, forcing the hospitals and clinics communities rely upon to shut down. To make matters worse, Congress has excluded essential community providers who deliver abortions from the Medicaid program, jeopardizing access to vital preventive and reproductive health services in already underserved communities. 

And the harm does not stop there. Congress cut Medicaid to fund billions in tax cuts for the rich and funding for ICE and CBP’s racialized and anti-democratic attacks on immigrants and entire communities. The struggles against these injustices are inextricably linked to the struggle to protect Medicaid.

How We are Meeting this Moment

The Collaborative is meeting this moment by advancing two strategic priorities. First, we are co-creating and implementing a coordinated reproductive justice movement strategy to mitigate the damage of federal Medicaid cuts. Second, we continue to build collective power toward our bold, shared reproductive justice vision for universal health coverage reform. We will not stop fighting until every person has access to the comprehensive, culturally and linguistically appropriate, and nondiscriminatory health coverage they need to make decisions about their bodies, families, and futures.

If you work at a reproductive justice organization and would like to get involved, or if you would otherwise like to learn more about the Collaborative, contact NHeLP Senior Attorney Madeline Morcelle at [email protected].

Meet the Team