Hunger and Food Insecurity

Cuts to Lifesaving Hunger Aid Could Impact Millions: ‘Our President and Congress Think Budget Cuts Will Help People Achieve Self-Sufficiency. They Won’t.’

PUBLISHED 10/8/2025 by

When Crystal FitzSimons became president of the 55-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in May, she anticipated attacks on federal food and nutrition programs. But she calls what has unfolded unprecedented, and makes clear that unless Congress changes course and passes the Restoring Food Security for American Families and Farmers Act of 2025, millions of U.S. residents will lose some or all of the benefits they’re receiving through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP.  

Other pending changes that FitzSimons is expecting will take the shape of denying SNAP to the few immigrants who were previously eligible for benefits, such as asylum seekers, refugees and international survivors of domestic violence.

“We are working at the state and federal levels and are collecting stories of different people who will be directly impacted by the cuts—the grandmother who relies on SNAP and helps watch her grandchildren while her daughter is at work; disabled people who use SNAP to support their independence; and older adults who are no longer able to work. We share their stories because we know that the real experiences of real people are critical in helping lawmakers and others understand who benefits from SNAP.”

“Every dollar spent on SNAP generates up to $1.80 in economic activity at the community level during economic downturns.”

One Megabill for the Megarich

PUBLISHED 10/7/2025 by

The Trump administration is calling its new budget “the most pro-family legislation ever crafted.” But for women like Bre’Jaynae Joiner, a single mother of two in Oakland, the cuts to Medicaid and SNAP threaten her family’s very survival.

Over the next decade, more than 11 million Americans—mostly women and children—are expected to lose health coverage, while deep food assistance cuts and work requirements will push even more families into crisis. Advocates call the bill a massive transfer of wealth to the rich at the expense of the poor, a policy that will shutter rural hospitals, deny essential care and worsen maternal mortality.

As Sen. Raphael Warnock puts it plainly: “If you cut $900 billion out of Medicaid, people are going to die.”

The War on Children

PUBLISHED 9/5/2025 by

American children die at stunning rates because of policy choices, and mostly because of policy choices made by the “pro-life” right.

The Republican Party has long claimed the mantle of defending life. The new Republican Party has promised to make America healthy again. Instead, they’re leaving kids sick and dead.

This is a war on children. It is also a war on women. The “women and children” framing can feel incredibly condescending, but the truth is that women’s and children’s lives and wellbeing are indelibly intertwined. Women make children with our bodies; if we are not well, they are not well. Women still do most of the work of raising and nurturing children; if they are not well, we are not well. This does not apply to every single woman on earth. But it applies to women as a class, and to children as a class.

Trump’s Stunts Hide His Real Agenda: Rigging Elections and Gutting Safety Nets

PUBLISHED 8/18/2025 by

Trump’s latest antics—from patrolling D.C. with border agents, to announcing a White House “UFC cage match”—are meant to generate headlines and distract from the real story. Behind the spectacle, his budget slashes SNAP, Medicaid and other lifelines for women and children, while Republicans escalate redistricting schemes to rig the 2026 elections.

Don’t let the chaos fool you: These moves will have devastating, lasting consequences for our democracy and our lives.

Gender-Based Violence Rises in Gaza, Case Workers Tell of Harrowing Conditions: ‘There Aren’t Enough Safe Spaces for Women and Their Children’

PUBLISHED 7/22/2025 by

“There’s been a sharp increase in survivors seeking help,” said Suhair, who works at a safe space for women and girls in Gaza’s central Deir El-Balah Governorate.  “We’re working under extremely difficult conditions, including repeated incursions. There aren’t enough safe spaces for women and their children,” she told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. 

Repeated, forced displacements, movement restrictions and a prolonged lack of fuel and electricity have also made it more difficult to help those most at risk. “We’re providing services over the phone because survivors can’t reach safe spaces,” added Suhair.

Widespread illness, poverty, mass displacement and depleted healthcare and social services are all heightening stress levels within households. These exacerbated conditions have led to rising reports of increased domestic violence, sexual exploitation and abuse. Many are turning to child labor and forced marriages to cope with devastating levels of hunger.

With over 714,000 people—one third of Gaza’s population—forced to move again over the past three months, families are being separated and the local support structures they once relied on have crumbled. Women and girls in particular describe feeling afraid on the street, at aid delivery points and in overcrowded, makeshift shelters that lack privacy, sanitation or basic security measures.

Why Is the Trump Administration Destroying Almost $10 Million of Contraceptives?

PUBLISHED 7/16/2025 by

After the richest man in the world shuttered the U.S. agency that provides aid for the world’s poorest, the government is now going to spend money destroying the contraceptives, medications and food items it chose not to distribute.

This includes $9.7 million in contraceptives that were bound for crisis areas—places like refugee camps and war zones. It includes $800,000 worth of high-energy biscuits, a kind of emergency food aid for people in the direst of circumstances—and enough of it to feed 1.5 million children for a week.

To be clear, all of these items have already been paid for by U.S. tax dollars. The Trump administration is about to spend more money to destroy them.

Keeping Score: Diddy’s Incomplete Conviction ‘Failed to Protect Survivors’; Inhumane Conditions in Alligator Alcatraz; What’s in the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’?

PUBLISHED 7/14/2025 by

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week:
—Trump’s reconciliation bill will prevent millions from accessing healthcare and food assistance.
—IWMF announced this year’s Courage in Journalism Awards.
—Many prison systems lack accommodations for pregnant inmates.
—Sean “Diddy” Combs found not guilty of sex trafficking.
—The Supreme Court’s decision on LGBTQ books in public schools lays the foundation for new assault on books of all kinds in schools.
—Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) called out the hypocrisy of “pro-choice” members of Congress in a House Rules committee meeting: “They say they’re pro-life because they want the baby to be born, go to school and get shot in the school.”
—A group of actors including Jane Fonda and Rosario Dawson wrote a letter to Amazon, after allegations that the company has frequently refused to accommodate pregnant workers. 
—Mahmoud Khalil is suing the Trump administration for $20 million.
—July 10 was Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, marking when Black women’s earnings catch up to what white men earned in 2024.

… and more.

Trump Is Ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitian Refugees. Here’s What That Means for Women.

PUBLISHED 7/6/2025 by

The Trump administration announced late last month it will terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian refugees in the United States. As a result of this decision, thousands of Haitian immigrants with legal status will become undocumented and eligible for deportation in September.

Women and girls face the brunt of violence in Haiti. Without TPS, Haitian women will be arrested by ICE, detained and eventually returned to a country where gangs frequently use sexual violence against women and girls to terrorize communities and gain control.

In 2024, the U.N. logged more than 6,400 cases of gender-based violence in Haiti.

Historic Cuts to SNAP Deepen the War on Women

PUBLISHED 7/3/2025 by

 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.