Last year, a friend texted me at 7 weeks pregnant asking where to find reliable information. She had been on TikTok for hours and knew some of it was bullshit. That memory came back to me last week when the federal government launched Moms.gov, an HHS-branded “maternal health” site that says it supports mothers and, instead, quietly funnels users toward anti-abortion infrastructure. Let’s dive in.
We live in a world where people are expected to make huge decisions about their bodies while sifting through algorithmic sludge, half-truths, influencer advice, and whatever search results Google has been paid to prioritize. The federal government has become a huge part of this misinformation pipeline and Moms.gov is no exception.
What a real public health website would do
A federal maternal health site should be clear, clinically accurate, easy to navigate, and free of ideological fluff. It should help people understand their options, recognize warning signs, and find comprehensive care including abortion and contraception. It should separate clinical care from counseling. It should clearly label any referral that is non-medical. And it should connect health information to the policy levers that actually shape outcomes like insurance, wages, housing, child care, disability access, and racial justice.
Moms.gov does almost none of that.
The most serious problem with Moms.gov is who it sends users to. The site features crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), unlicensed and unregulated facilities with a documented history of misleading pregnant people about gestational age, abortion safety, contraception, and their own medical credentials. CPCs are usually religiously affiliated, tax-exempt, and funded by taxpayer dollars through state programs like Texas’s Alternatives to Abortion and Pennsylvania’s Real Alternatives. They outnumber legitimate abortion clinics roughly three to one nationwide.
CPCs are usually religiously affiliated, tax-exempt, and funded by taxpayer dollars through state programs.
Continue reading over at the Women in America Substack.
Become a paid subscriber today. Because reproductive freedom can’t wait, and neither can we.
