Lawmakers in 18 states across the country – the majority of which are in the South – fail to guarantee that workers can earn paid sick days, and at the same time block local governments from setting their own standards for local workers, families and businesses.
Missed Opportunities to Expand Paid Leave and Caregiving Supports Through the Tax Code
Failure to act on paid leave has kept workers – especially women workers – on the workplace sidelines, moving in and out of the workforce to navigate disruptions associated with caregiving needs or responsibilities.
Three Years Post-Dobbs, Abortion Bans & Criminalization Threaten More than 15 Million Women of Color
Despite the ever-changing access landscape, it is clear that anti-abortion policies are harming millions and growing more extreme three years post-Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Policies across the country that ban abortion and threaten to criminalize pregnant people for their reproductive health decisions subject abortion patients to health precarities, policing, and punishment.
Explainer on Trump’s Executive Order on Disparate Impact
On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14281 to roll back the use of the disparate impact standard, as part of the administration’s larger attack on civil rights. This executive order could undermine federal enforcement of workers’ civil rights and leave workers more vulnerable to discriminatory practices.
Ensuring Primary Care for All: The Urgent Case for RUC Reform
The US. health care system is often described as in crisis – reflecting its complexity, inaccessibility, unaffordability, and inequitable care and outcomes. At the root of this system lies an obscure but influential committee that most people have never heard of – the Relative Value Scale Update Committee, also known as the RUC.
Supreme Court Case Threatens Access to Critical No-Cost Preventive Services
The Supreme Court held oral arguments on Braidwood v. Kennedy (previously Braidwood v. Becerra), which could determine the coverage of preventive care services that keep millions of people healthy. The Court will decide on whether to eliminate coverage of no-cost preventive services for patients across the country, or just for those employed by the plaintiff in the case (Braidwood Management Incorporated).
At Risk: Critical Medicaid Benefits for Moms
Medicaid is the largest single-payer of maternity care in the United States, financing an estimated forty percent of births and playing a critical role in addressing the current maternal mortality crisis. Critical Medicaid benefits for maternal health are on the chopping block as Congress debates Medicaid cuts that would threaten maternal and infant health in every state.
Seventeen States Attack HIPAA and Reproductive Health Privacy
Four lawsuits from anti-abortion extremists challenging the 2024 HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy (2024 HIPAA Privacy Rule) are jeopardizing health privacy and threatening to put pregnant people at even greater risk of criminalization for their reproductive care.
What’s the Wage Gap in the States?
Overall, women in the United States are paid 75 cents for every dollar paid to men, and that gap is widest for women of color. This persistent, pervasive wage gap is driven in part by gender and racial discrimination, workplace harassment, job segregation and a lack of workplace policies that support family caregiving, which is still most often performed by women.
The Impact of Paid Leave on the Health of Massachusetts
This brief offers strong evidence that paid leave not only supports workers health, but also improves productivity in Massachusetts.
Patient Advocate Perspectives on Advancing Value-Based, Person-Centered Care
This resource is a summary of the salient themes and recommendations that emerged from the Equity-Centered Payment Reform Learning Collaborative meeting series.
Attacks on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Threaten Nearly 3 Million Pregnant Workers
Efforts to overturn or undercut the enforcement of the PWFA puts 2.8 million pregnant workers at risk – including majorities of Black, brown and white women, and the majority in every state.
Enhancing Women’s Behavioral Health Through the IBH Model
The new Innovation in Behavioral Health (IBH) model from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation offers significant potential to improve the way care is provided to people with behavioral health conditions.
Black Women and the Care Agenda
Black women are family caregivers – and they need flexibility and economic supports to make the best decisions for themselves and their families
Making the Most of Medicaid’s Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) Model
The new Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) model is a crucial opportunity to improve outcomes for birthing people, especially those most affected by the maternal health crisis.
Small Businesses Support a National Paid Family and Medical Leave Program
A new national scientific opinion poll found that 79% of small business owners support the creation of a national paid family and medical leave program that would guarantee employees wage replacement for up to 12 weeks, funded by 0.5% employer and employee contributions each.
Disabled Women and the Wage Gap
Disabled women workers overall are only paid 50 cents for every dollar a nondisabled man makes, due to a long legacy of ableism and discrimination.
Data Privacy & Reproductive Freedom
In order to ensure pregnant people can exercise full autonomy over their bodies and lives on their own terms and without fear of criminalization, data privacy protections are urgently needed.
Unfinished Policy Agenda for Women in the Economy Cost the U.S. $6.7 Trillion in GDP Gains Over a Decade
Despite the attention generated by the White House Summit on Working Families and the ongoing work of advocates, policy experts, and key policymakers, the comprehensive progress needed to strengthen women’s participation in the economy and grow our economy overall has yet to be fully realized.
With Abortion on the Ballot in November, 16.5 Million Women Could be Impacted
In the November 2024 election, abortion access will be on the ballot in 10 states. Our analysis shows that more than 16.5 million women of reproductive age – 21.9 percent of all women of reproductive age in the U.S. – could be impacted by changes to reproductive rights laws in their state.
