Eleven U.S. senators have formally requested that the Trump administration halt its practice of directing pregnant individuals to anti-abortion centers via the federal website Moms.gov. In a letter sent Wednesday to President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the senators raised concerns about the website's primary resources, which predominantly link to anti-abortion pregnancy centers, also known as crisis pregnancy centers.
The Department of Health and Human Services launched Moms.gov on Mother's Day, describing it as a resource for new and expecting mothers. However, senators argue that the site predominantly features 2,750 anti-abortion centers across the country. The letter, shared exclusively with HuffPost, states that this practice raises "profound concerns about the health, safety, and privacy of people who access this government website at a time when women’s health and reproductive rights face increasing attacks."
Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) led the effort, joined by fellow Democratic senators Ron Wyden (Ore.), Edward Markey (Mass.), Tina Smith (Minn.), John Hickenlooper (Colo.), Cory Booker (N.J.), and Michael Bennett (Colo.).
According to the senators, crisis pregnancy centers are often nonmedical, faith-based organizations focused on dissuading individuals from seeking abortions. They claim that over 70% of these centers employ deceptive tactics, such as providing inaccurate medical information and misrepresenting abortion care, with nearly 40% failing to disclose that they do not offer abortion services. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists describes these clinics as being "run by people who operate unethically and with the intention to dissuade, deter, or prevent them from seeking certain reproductive health care options."
The Moms.gov website directs users to Option Line, a call center operated by Heartbeat International, a prominent anti-abortion organization, which then refers callers to affiliated centers. The senators are calling for the removal of this link from Moms.gov, arguing that federal resources should provide evidence-based information.
"It’s horrific that the Trump administration is using taxpayer dollars to prop up a website that pushes pregnant women towards non-medical anti-abortion centers," Senator Warren told HuffPost. "The Republican plan is to sneak through anti-abortion resources and backdoor abortion bans because they know Americans don’t support their extreme agenda. Democrats are fighting back."
The senators also highlighted potential data privacy issues, noting Heartbeat International's past data breaches. They expressed alarm that the administration is directing individuals to a private data-collection system operated by an organization that collects and shares personal data without robust privacy safeguards, especially at a time when reproductive health data is being used to criminalize women.
The senators requested specific details about the website's creation, the decision-making process, the terms of the partnership with Option Line, and the administration's plans for protecting user data. They have given Trump and Kennedy a July 8 deadline to respond. The senators concluded that "Moms.gov is not about promoting women’s health. It is an attempt to use HHS resources to further strip women of their rights and privacy."