MOMS Act
The More Opportunities for Moms to Succeed Act (MOMS Act) would create a broad federal framework aimed at guiding pregnant and new mothers to resources, expanding access to prenatal and postnatal care, and enhancing state-level administrative tools related to pregnancy support. It establishes a new public website, pregnancy.gov, designed as a national clearinghouse for resources (health, housing, nutrition, childcare, education, mental health, etc.) and to provide localized referrals based on ZIP Codes. The bill also requires states to submit lists of licensed private child placement agencies, creates a national list of those agencies on the website, and directs annual reporting to Congress. In addition, it authorizes grants to support “positive alternatives for women” who choose to carry pregnancies to term, including information, referrals, and some direct services, with strict restrictions intended to limit support for abortion-related activities. A separate telehealth provision would fund at-home telehealth equipment to improve prenatal and postnatal care in rural or underserved areas. Finally, the bill adds a new provision to the child support system to enable states to establish and enforce child support obligations for an unborn child (from conception onward), with conditions around the mother’s consent and paternity processes. The act would fund these efforts through various appropriations and a reallocation mechanism from the Department of Health and Human Services. Overall, the bill combines resource aggregation and referral infrastructure, targeted grants to promote term pregnancies, and new policy tools to treat an unborn child as a potential recipient of support, all with an explicit emphasis on restricting abortion-related activities and prioritizing non-abortion options and services.
Key Points
- 1Establishes pregnancy.gov as a centralized federal resource directory for pregnant and postpartum women, with location-based resource matching, multilingual accessibility, and a consent-driven outreach mechanism; includes requirements to avoid listing prohibited entities and to report on usage, gaps, and resource quality.
- 2Creates a national list of licensed private child placement agencies, to be published on pregnancy.gov, with state-level reporting, annual congressional reports, and potential consequences for states that fail to submit or maintain accurate lists (including impact on adoption-related payments).
- 3Authorizes grants under Title II to fund “positive alternatives for women” aimed at helping pregnant women carry pregnancies to term and care for themselves and their babies, including information, referrals, and direct services (e.g., medical care, housing, childcare, education, parenting support); restricts funds from being used for abortion coverage or for unlicensed adoption services; requires privacy protections and monitoring of grant recipients.
- 4Funds improvements to prenatal and postnatal telehealth through grants or cooperative agreements to provide equipment for at-home telehealth visits (e.g., pulse oximeters, BP cuffs, scales, glucose monitors) to reach rural, frontier, medically underserved, and Tribal populations; includes a Congress-facing report on program activities and outcomes by 2028.
- 5Adds Sec. 301 to Section 454 of the Social Security Act to require states to establish and enforce child support obligations for the biological father of an unborn child (and later for the child after birth) if the mother requests it, with options for start dates at conception, potential retroactive collections, and court-determined amounts; requires mother’s consent for paternity actions and protections against risk to the unborn child. Defines unborn child to include a member of the species Homo sapiens at any stage of development carried in the womb.
- 6Imposes limitations on waivers or experimental initiatives that would modify unborn-child support provisions; effective date set two years after enactment, applying to calendar quarters beginning after that date.