Dear John,

Real talk: being a mother in the United States right now is hard.

For all its lofty (and creepy) rhetoric about encouraging women to have more babies (like offering menstrual cycle training so women know when they are most fertile), in reality the Trump administration is cutting programs that support mothers and families, ending research for fertility treatments, attacking reproductive rights, attempting to cut funding for the child tax credit, and so much more.

It’s clear they don’t actually care about what mothers want or need—but we do.

At the National Women’s Law Center, we never stop fighting for women and families. It’s why we’re working to make child care more affordable and protect Head Start, suing to defend access to emergency abortion care, going to court to ensure LGBTQ+ families can access fertility treatments, and working to ensure that Congress doesn’t slash the basic needs programs that support families in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. It’s why we’ve been at the vanguard of every major fight for gender justice for over 50 years, and why we’re ready for 50 more.

Our commitment to building a better, more just future for women and girls drives everything we do, and we are so grateful for all the moms, stepmoms, honorary moms, daughters, aunties, grandmas, and role models that are right there with us.

This Mother’s Day, I hope you can find joy with your loved ones and sneak in a few of those precious moments of peace you deserve. We’ll be right here to keep up the fight.

Happy Mother’s Day,

Emily Martin
she/her/hers
Chief Program Officer
National Women's Law Center

P.S. Need a last-minute gift for an important mom or parental figure in your life? We’ve got just the thing! Make a donation in their honor and help fuel our work fighting for all women and girls.