Disabled couples are still forced to choose between love and survival due to an unjust “marriage penalty” baked into U.S. law that puts their benefits, healthcare and autonomy at risk.
Justice & Law
Historic Cuts to SNAP Deepen the War on Women
Republicans in the House and Senate scrambled to pass legislation that will cut $184 billion from SNAP through 2034—by far the largest cut to SNAP in the program’s history—to finance tax cuts for the wealthy big businesses. They also hope to increase funding for pursuit of immigrants.
This extremist budget will drive millions of people into poverty and hunger. It also represents a full-throated assault on women—particularly single mothers, for whom SNAP has been a lifeline.
Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Create a Disaster for Rural Mothers and Babies
Women and babies who live in areas that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump are likely to suffer some of the Big Beautiful Bill’s most sweeping and damaging effects.
The historically brutal Medicaid cuts—a staggering $930 billion slashed from the program over the next decade—could force as many as 144 rural hospitals around the U.S. to close their labor-and-delivery units or drastically scale back services.
Walmart, Kroger and Big Food Love SNAP Dollars—But Won’t Lift a Finger to Save Them
While SNAP keeps grocery giants and food manufacturers afloat, they’re nowhere to be found when it’s under threat.
No peep out of Walmart or Kroger. Nada from ConAgra, Tyson Foods or Kraft Heinz. Zilch from General Mills, PepsiCo and Nestle.
Maybe their tax breaks are worth it. Maybe they want to stay on Trump’s good side as Robert Kennedy Jr. attacks their products. Whatever the reason, their silence speaks volumes.
What, you expected corporate solidarity with consumers and workers? You have not been paying attention.
A Bill That Rips Away Food, Healthcare and Dignity From Millions—So Billionaires Can Get Richer
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and others can repeat the lie that no one will lose coverage, but it does not make it so. Seventeen million people will lose healthcare (including 11 million Medicaid beneficiaries). Millions will lose food assistance. The debt will grow by over $3 trillion.
It is hard to find anyone outside the MAGA cult who thinks this will benefit America. Republicans respond by lying about the bill even when confronted with the misery their handiwork will cause.
Republicans refuse to admit that they are hurting ordinary, hard-working Americans trying to provide for themselves and their families. To do otherwise would be a confession of their inhumanity. Instead, using well-worn authoritarian techniques (e.g., demonization, dehumanization and marginalization), MAGA politicians convince themselves that those who rely on vital benefits are unfit and undeserving. Republicans dub them “rats” or “vermin” or “murderers.”
If the bill passes the House, the pain in all 50 states will no longer be abstract. MAGA Republicans’ betrayal will hurt and, yes, kill tens of thousands of Americans. And everyone will know which party is responsible. Republicans have no plausible excuse for putting the interests of billionaires over those of ordinary people.
When the Federal Government Fails, Local Organizers Step In—With Laws, Not Just Protests
We are living through the hollowing out of federal protection. And while the usual narrative goes something like, “Vote, wait, trust the system,” in many places, the people closest to the chaos have stepped up to envision and advance new laws.
In California this year, four bills moving through the legislature were not the result of think tank white papers or party strategists. They came from organizers, queer folks, women of color, survivors—people who have lived the very broken systems they are now trying to change.
A process that centers lived experience as a form of policy expertise is a cutting-edge theory of governance. And it’s replicable: Invest in community-led policy training. Bring people into the lawmaking process not as tokens but as co-authors. Demystify legislative drafting. Reimagine who gets to define what safety, dignity and justice look like.
(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund highlighting the work of Groundswell partners advancing inclusive democracy.)
How Reshma Saujani Makes the Invisible Work of Motherhood Impossible to Ignore
Most women are taught to make motherhood look effortless. Reshma Saujani wants you to see that we were never supposed to do it alone.
In a country that still treats caregiving as a personal responsibility rather than a public good, Saujani is changing the script. Not by asking for sympathy, but by exposing the architecture of the lie—and building something better in its place.
“I come from a long line of rule-breakers,” she told me. “My parents fled a dictator. They landed in Chicago with nothing. I grew up surrounded by refugees who were just trying to make it work. That kind of survival teaches you two things: one, that struggle is constant—and two, that silence is dangerous.”
She was a rule-breaker long before she was a movement-builder—always challenging authority, always in detention. “I’ve never been good at following the script,” she said. And that’s exactly what makes her effective.
War on Women Report: MAGA Republicans Hope to Turn Miscarriage Into a Crime and Gut Planned Parenthood
MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.
Since our last report:
—On June 14, between 4 and 13 million people attended No Kings rallies nationwide to protest President Trump’s immigration and economic policies.
—Four states—California, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey—have petitioned the FDA to undo restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone.
—Some good news out of Montana: This month, the state supreme court struck down three abortion restrictions that Republican lawmakers passed in 2021.
… and more.
The Supreme Court’s Ruling on National Injunctions Will Hurt Us All—Immigrants First
In a 6-3 decision last Friday, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration a partial, but crucial, victory in its efforts to stop federal courts from blocking Trump’s agenda.
The vehicle for this power grab, CASA v. Trump, is a case about the legality of denying citizenship to children born to parents who are in the U.S. unlawfully or temporarily. In the majority’s ruling that nationwide injunctions were probably outside the federal judiciary’s authority, and therefore, judges should limit their orders to the parties and plaintiffs before them, it has tipped the balance of power to the president. And that is going to make many people’s lives—immigrants and nonimmigrants alike—much more difficult.
As Support for Abortion Grows, the Court Doubles Down on Restricting Care
In its Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic ruling last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a devastating blow to reproductive health clinics across the nation. A substantial slate of decisions issued by the Court Friday dealt several more severe blows to the rule of law and our constitutional rights—though a silver lining was the Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act’s preventive-care mandate.