Kenya N. Rahmaan
The Trump Administration has launched a new program for women who have plans on motherhood. The website moms.gov was launched on Mother’s Day of 2026 and claims to offer services to assist expectant moms-to-be through their pregnancy. According to the website, the new pregnancy centers offer pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, STD/STI testing and treatment, parenting support, childbirth classes, medical referrals, and material goods like clothes and diapers. The services are free of charge and are available at most of the nearly 1,500 centers nationwide.
The campaign for a revitalized family-oriented America has become the focus of this administration. The Family First Prevention Act was enacted in 2025, and while not directly related to Title IV-D of the Social Security Act (SSA), the child support program serves as a connector between the new and old child welfare improvement legislation. With the hopes of changing how Title IV-E funds are spent once the money reaches the states. According to the Social Security Administration, Title IV–E enables each state to provide foster care and transitional living programs for children who otherwise have been approved for state benefits under Title IV-A of the SSA.[1] The incentive-based program determines how much funding foster and adoption placement agencies receive.
Title IV-A is the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, and is the modern-day welfare program. The federal government provides block grants
appropriated through the TANF program when recipients qualify. Ultimately, when low-income women become pregnant, the Family First Act, along with the moms.gov, will provide the benefits traditionally administered through Title IV-A through Title IV-E. The enactment of the mother- and family-oriented programs can be attributed to the successful decades-old repeal effort by conservatives to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The Wade decision has been the center of controversy surrounding abortion and a woman’s right to choose. The Heritage Foundation, a popular conservative think tank and arguably racist organization, has voiced opinions about the U.S. Supreme Court, or SCOTUS, repealing the pro-abortion decision. The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the SCOTUS, held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected
[1] Social Security Administration. (n.d.). Compilation of the social security laws. Retrieved May 12, 2026, from https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title04/0400.htm
representatives (Samuel Alito, 2024). Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch spearheaded Dobbs, even as the state leads the nation in child poverty. According to AG Fitch:
“For the past fifty years, states like Mississippi have been trying to figure out what they can do to defend legitimate State interests based on Supreme Court precedent. Interests that include protecting life, protecting women’s health, and protecting the integrity of the medical profession.”[2]
It appears that the goal of the Republican Party is the new mandate. The idea of pushing the next conservative president to work with Congress to enact the most robust protections for the unborn that Congress will support, while deploying existing federal powers to protect innocent life.[3] The innocent life of the fetus, thanks to the Fitch, The Heritage Foundation, the SCOTUS, Congress, and the Trump Administration, will be protected perhaps more than the pregnant mother-to-be.
Where is the problem?
Depending on who you ask, a couple of problems immediately jump out. The Right-to-Choose supporters argue that overturning Roe forces women to give birth to babies even when the woman’s health is in jeopardy. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund contends that abortion is healthcare, a basic right, and that nearly a fourth of women in America will have an abortion by age 45. Mississippi and the nation will soon assist women who cannot afford to have children with every resource available to give birth. The expenses, Congress decided, will be transferred from Title IV-A to Title IV-E. In the meantime, government officials are back on the campaign trail, hoping to convince the people of the benefits of the new bill.
What the government is purposely omitting from their sales pitch about saving babies, helping mothers, and restoring families is the source of future capital. The pregnant woman, while being groomed for motherhood, will receive information on all available resources for low-income families. Between Titles IV-A and IV-E, Title IV-D is better known to those familiar with the SSA as child support. Title IV-D of the Social Security Act enforces support obligations owed by noncustodial parents to their children and the spouse (or former spouse) with whom such children are:
[2] Attorney General Loretta Fitch. (2021, June 25). AG Lynn Fitch’s Remarks on Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health. Retrieved May 12, 2026, from https://attorneygenerallynnfitch.com//2021/06/25/ag-lynn-fitchs-remarks-on-dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health/
[3] The Heritage Foundation. (2023). Mandate for leadership The conservative promise. https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
- living,
- locating noncustodial parents,
- establishing paternity,
- obtaining child and spousal support,
- and assuring that assistance in obtaining support will be available under this part to all children (whether or not eligible for assistance under a State program funded under part A) for whom such assistance is requested.1
The social security program is heavily funded by child support collections. The connection between Title IV-D and Title IV-A requires cooperation from the pregnant woman in exchange for benefits. For example, AG Fitch implemented The Empowerment Project in conjunction with Dobbs with a mission to uplift women, children, and families. The project depends on partnerships with various agencies and companies focusing on facilitating quality and affordable childcare, dismantling barriers for steady employment, improving the foster and adoption systems, and increasing specific tax credits. 2
Most of the legislative goals listed for The Empowerment Project have been adopted. One legislative goal missing from the numerous social media and news articles is the role that child support enforcement will play in the Family First Prevention Act. According to AG Fitch, enhancing child support enforcement to meet the following goals:
- Allowing child support for a child with a disability to continue past the age of majority;
- Requiring the Gaming Commission and DHS to coordinate efforts to obtain child support arrearages from gaming winnings; and, (adopted in 2026)
- Allowing child support charges to be pursued for 3 years after a child’s 18th birthday to deter gaming the system (adopted in 2023).
For many the idea of family being first is the solution the country needs to restore conservatism and two-parent households. To others, family first through the government is inviting trouble into a place that is supposed to represent peace. For child support reform advocates, like myself, I see an underhanded scheme to implement the next stages of The Child Support Hustle. The states will recruit low-income women who are pregnant, promise to help and care for both her and her unborn child, deceive her into suing the father for child support, and facing at least 20 years of complete turmoil within her family. Low-income parents and their children are the victims of a government that will come with a smile and leave with everything that makes freedom and family worth waking up to every day.
Instead of attempting to reform Title IV-A, D, and E, the best plan is to educate the youth about the problems with the child support system when you are poor. After all, when the government joins a family, the family usually loses. Low income parents involved with the welfare child support program typically forfeit any child support current on future payments. The former OCSE director Vicky Turetsky co-wrote Directing Child Support Payments to Families, Not Government, Would Help Families Afford Basic Needs and Thrive with Diana Azevedo-McCaffrey wrote that nearly half of the families participating in the child support program do not receive payments paid on their behalf. Sometimes child support significantly increases the family income and overall provides the sense of security.
Unfortunately, TANF cost recovery policies disproportionately impact Black and native p. parents trying to make ends meet.[4] Since Title IV-D mandates employers garnish income directly from paychecks, the take home pay often leaves little to provide for the basic needs of the paying parent. Black men, historically, experience the highest unemployment rates. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) reported the unemployment rates for Black and White men in key years when the government changed child support and welfare programs. In 1976, 1996, and 2026, the juxtaposition between White and Black and are dramatically different with rates of 7%, 4.6%, and 3.7% and 14.1%, 10.5%, and 7.3%, [5] & [6] respectively. Since over 70% of child support collections come from income garnishments, Black men are most often indebted to the government to ‘repay’ welfare benefits.
The Social Security Act was enacted 90 years ago to provide a sense of protection for American citizens, both employed and unemployed. The protections extend to the abled and disabled and the young and old around the nation. Over the decades, the program has extended to one that affects nearly every individual, more specifically through children.
There is a great sense of dependency on social security, likewise the government heavily depends on citizen revenue to financially function. Expectant women and their partners should not be deceived by people claiming to only offer assistance to discover later they have been trapped in a contract. Women and men should never sign anything without reading and researching the document. The Title IV-D part of the SSA is a welfare recovery program. Education and awareness will help potential parents and families avoid The Child Support Hustle.
[4] Turetsky, V., & Azevedo-McCaffrey, D. (2024, October 8). Directing child support payments to families, not government, would help families afford basic needs and thrive. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Retrieved May 13, 2026, from https://www.cbpp.org/research/income-security/child-support-payments-should-go-to-families-not-government
[5] Unemployment Rate – White (LNS14000003). (2026, May 6). The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Retrieved May 13, 2026, from https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS14000003#
[6] Unemployment rate – Black or African American (LNS14000006). (2026, May 8). https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS14000006