2023 Wrapped: Our Top Ten Wins show the power of MOMS!
Our Top Ten Wins of 2023 are wrapped, mapped, and ready to show the power of MOMS! You can read the full list of our 2023 top ten wins together with you below.
All told, against weighty odds, we were able to win big legislative battles, move mom voters, shift the national narrative, and ultimately to build an even stronger, deeper, powerful movement of over a million people.
THANK YOU for building a much-needed movement with us that’s building a nation where every child and person can thrive!
WIN - Making History With Biden/Harris EO Action on Care: President Biden signed an Executive Order on Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Support Caregivers with MomsRising’s Executive Director by his side. With 50 key actions, it is the most sweeping EO to improve care in our nation’s history. This victory is in no small part due to the powerful, persistent activism of the over a million MomsRising members.
WIN - Advancing Affordable Child Care: MomsRising members from every state advocated for quality, affordable child care; and MomsRising brought moms from 20 states to a Boot Camp/Training where we met with leaders in the White House and rallied with members of Congress at the U.S. Capitol. Subsequently, the White House asked Congress for the $16 billion in child care stabilization funds we requested. Our child care wins in key states, including Washington, are benefiting countless families including those who are child care workers, undocumented, and navigating the therapeutic court system.
WIN - Defeating Book Bans and Censorship: MomsRising helped defeat the extremist, harmful, mis-named “Parents Bill of Rights” – the federal legislative framework to advance book bans and censorship that extremist Republicans were pushing. We also helped moms protect local school boards and push back against Moms “For” Liberty across the nation, including in Florida where we successfully defended a Duval County health program serving over 11,000 families from rightwing attacks.
WIN - Securing Abortion Rights In Ohio: MomsRising helped get out the vote that resulted in a historic victory to ensure our children don’t have fewer rights than we do by passing Ohio’s Issue 1, a ballot initiative that protects the right to abortion in the state.
WIN - Advancing the Rights of Pregnant and Breastfeeding Workers: The MomsRising community joined with allies to help ensure equitable implementation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which MomsRising helped pass and was enacted earlier this year. We generated thousands of comments to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), ran public outreach campaigns so more people know about their new rights, and joined partners in Time Square to launch the #NewRights4Parents educational campaign to tell workers who are pregnant, nursing, and/or in postpartum recovery how to access the new protections.
WIN - Expanding Access to Health Care: MomsRising led a campaign that resulted in a monumental victory when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reinforced that states must provide 12 months of continuous coverage for children under Medicaid and CHIP, ensuring uninterrupted care for millions. We helped win Medicaid expansion in New Hampshire and North Carolina, benefitting 600,000 people in North Carolina alone.
WIN - Organizing for Paid Family and Medical Leave: Thanks to continuous pressure from moms across the nation, including our Mother’s Day event at the U.S. Capitol featuring more than 20 members of Congress and 100 moms from across the nation, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee held the first-ever hearing on paid family and medical leave. Witnesses shared two MomsRising member stories. MomsRising continued to build momentum for paid family and medical leave at the state and local levels, including winning passage of the Family First Paid Leave Policy in Durham County!
WIN - Enlisting Powerful Support for Gun Safety: In response to and in solidarity with moms and caregivers across the country who are demanding safety from gun violence, the Biden/Harris administration established the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
WIN - Making O-Pill Available Over-The-Counter: Following years of advocacy by MomsRising leaders and members and our allies, the FDA approved O-Pill, the first-ever over-the-counter birth control drug for all. This victory is a landmark achievement for reproductive health that wouldn’t have been possible without nearly two decades of work by our partners in the Free the Pill coalition, along with grassroots pressure, powerful testimony including from MomsRising, and more.
WIN - Generating Massive Coverage, Building a Movement, Shifting the Narrative: MomsRising vastly exceeded our goals for engaging our million members and generated more than 1,600 media moments about our top policy priorities with an audience reach that exceeded 1.2 billion. In addition, more than 50 local MomsRising members powerfully shared their stories with the media – and those stories were carried by an additional 665 outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC News, and NPR.
The MomsRising movement has grown in strength and depth too: MomsRising now has members and activations in every state in the nation, as well as 14 states with deep state-specific work; and also more than 21 states with strong, local on-the-ground, long-term leadership development programs. In short, moms are rising in the states and in representing other moms in the U.S. Capitol. For instance, dozens of moms and kids from across the country joined one of our 2023 speak outs at the US Capitol, which also celebrated the reintroduction of the FAMILY ACT and the Healthy Families Act, and was covered by Good Morning America, Yahoo News, NBC stations, and others.
We also delivered many stories and story books directly to members of Congress in 2023 in order to shift the narrative, as well as to spark legislative action that reflects and respects parents and kids. Our stories are powerful because they let leaders know what’s really going on in our lives and needs to be solved, lets the media know what should be covered in the local and national narrative, and lets each of us know we’re not alone — and that when a lot of people are experiencing the same types of crisis at the same time, we don’t have an epidemic of personal failures; instead we have national structural issues that we can solve together through legislative change. One such storybook that was delivered in 2023 was the Honor Moms Every Day storybook, featuring personal stories demonstrating the need for our top policy priorities, which was delivered to every single member of Congress.
All told, in 2023, the MomsRising movement pushed forward legislation at the state and federal levels, helped shift the narrative with our stories and our voices, moved mom voters to action, and grew into an even stronger, more impactful grassroots force. We still have a long way to go to get to the transformational changes our nation’s families need so every child can thrive; so we’re committed to doubling down in 2024 to get to the future we know is possible when we all rise. Thank you!
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