What Public Charge Means for Reproductive Justice

Executive Summary

Update: As of March 9, 2021, the Trump-era public charge regulations are no longer in effect. The Biden administration published a final rule on March 15, 2021 formally removing the Trump-era public charge rule and restoring the long-standing 1999 Field Guidance as the standing public charge policy. The administration has significant work ahead to address the rule’s chilling effect on immigrants’ use of public benefits such as Medicaid, including rebuilding trust with immigrant communities.

Reproductive justice is a social movement rooted in the belief that all individuals and communities should have the resources and power they need to make their own decisions about their bodies, genders, sexualities, families, and lives. The Trump Administration’s crusade to expand the public charge rule is designed to sow fear, reap reproductive injustice, and damage the health and economic stability of immigrant Black, Latina/x, and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) people, families, and communities. This brief provides an overview of the recent changes to the public charge test, its implications for immigrant communities of color, and potential harms to reproductive and sexual health and justice.