Moral activists attend the June 29th "Mass Poor People & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly & Moral March on Washington D.C. & to the Polls." Photo courtesy Repairers of the Breach.

As Policy Battles Rage In Washington, The Stakes Are High For Women, Children and The Poor

Today, Repairers of the Breach published new data about the impact of proposed budget cuts by the Trump administration and Congress on women, children and the poor.

The new data is featured in an appendix to The High Moral Stakes of the Policy Battles Raging in Washington report. The report was co-published on March 5 by Repairers of the Breach, the Institute for Policy Studies, and the Economic Policy Institute. 

In the United States, nearly 43 percent of women and almost half of all children are poor or low-income. As the budget debates continue in Washington, proposed cuts will have a disproportionate impact on women and children.  President Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE group have ordered actions to:  

  • Cut funding for National Institutes of Health (NIH) research on health disparities, including Black maternal and fetal health. NIH officials have been told to deny funding for programs that mention “women.”
  • Cut $11.4 billion in state and community health department grants.
  • Ended birthright citizenship, potentially creating a group of stateless children.
  • End a federal contract for legal aid to help unaccompanied children make their asylum cases in court.
  • Remove longstanding policies prohibiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from raiding sensitive locations like schools, daycare centers, churches, and women’s shelters to conduct deportations.
  • Order immigration raids and deportations that will separate families, potentially harming the 4.4 million U.S. citizen children with an undocumented parent, and 850,000 undocumented minors.
  • Provide weapons for the resumed bombing of Gaza, where 15,000 children have been killed and one million children displaced, and resumed U.S. bombing of Yemen, where at least 11,000 children have been killed by fighting and one in two children are severely malnourished.
  • Eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development, putting 14 million children at risk of hunger and malnourishment.

The new data was featured during a prayer protest rally and press conference at the U.S. Supreme Court on April 2. Click here to read the new data in the appendix.

2 Apr 2025