White House, HHS Debut Website for Expectant and New Moms

A website launched by the Trump administration for expectant and new mothers drew mixed reactions Monday from women’s health groups.

“The Trump administration is strengthening its commitment to America’s families by equipping mothers and fathers with the resources and information they need to build healthy, prosperous lives,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a press release on Sunday — Mother’s Day — when the website officially launched. “Moms.gov delivers critical tools and support to help parents foster healthy pregnancies, strengthen young families, and create brighter futures for their children. This is how you Make America Healthy Again.”

According to HHS, some of the resources linked to on the Moms.gov website include information on:

• Support services and health centers (pregnancy centers and federally qualified health centers)
• Nutrition quick facts for mothers
• TrumpRx
• Resources for women and parents
• Preconception health
• Breastfeeding
• Mental health
• Adoption

Information on Planned Parenthood centers or other places that provide abortion access among their services was not included.

At a press conference held Monday at the White House to announce a Labor Department proposed rule related to fertility benefits, President Trump praised the new website. “I encourage every mom to visit this new page, where they will find helpful information addressing clinical care, pregnancy, resources, nutrition, [and] TrumpRx,” he said.

Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), who also attended the press conference, said the website was something she had been talking about doing with several other senators before the Trump administration put it into action. “It supports moms through the prenatal, postpartum, and early childhood development stages of motherhood, and also as we tackle rural health,” she said.

The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) praised the new website. “Every mother deserves real support and accurate information: before, during and after pregnancy,” AAPLOG CEO Christina Francis, MD, said in an email to MedPage Today. “We are heartened to see HHS focusing on the support that every woman needs during pregnancy and beyond — support that encourages healthy choices and recognizes the dignity and value of both our patients (mother and child). Pregnancy and motherhood convey significant health benefits to women.”

“Healthy families are not only good for our patients but for society as a whole,” she said. “Women and families thrive when they are empowered with information, access to life-affirming care, and support. We welcome moms.gov as a valuable resource for new mothers and their families.”

But Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH) disagreed. “This website purports to provide resources for new parents, but instead provides misinformation and disinformation about basic healthcare and links to websites that undermine parents’ access to complete reproductive health options, including sites that are staunchly anti-abortion and anti-contraception,” Emma Trawick, MD, a PRH fellow and maternal-fetal medicine physician in North Carolina, said in an email. “This website does not address the gaps we know most contribute to maternal and infant mortality, including providing evidence-based information around vaccines, gestational diabetes and preeclampsia prevention, and access to abortion and effective birth control.”

Trawick expressed concern about the site’s referral to crisis pregnancy centers, which “have a long history of using religious shaming, financial incentives, pseudoscience, and altered ultrasound images to mislead patients into believing they are too far along in pregnancy to have an abortion,” she said, adding that in announcing the website at the Monday press conference, President Trump “dangerously promotes anti-abortion and disinformation-focused content to potential parents on a government website. Rather than making maternal healthcare more accessible and safer, Moms.gov compromises my patients’ access to evidence-based reliable information.”

During a question-and-answer session, a reporter pointed out that a provision in the reconciliation bill passed last summer that defunded Planned Parenthood for 1 year is expiring on July 4th; she asked Trump if he’d like to see Congress renew that provision. “Congress is now negotiating [that],” he said. “To put it mildly, it’s been a very thorny issue.”

Trump also brought up the subject of increased numbers of autism diagnoses and appeared to criticize the fees physicians are paid for diagnosing it. “You know, I would like you to look at the payment schedules, Bobby, because I think it’s very skewed because of the payment schedule,” he said to Kennedy, who was also at the press conference. “I think that’s what’s happening. You can’t pay more for that to a doctor — every person around [is] going to have autism. That’s what’s happening. So, I really believe that that’s very badly skewed … I would like that [review] done immediately.”