Washington, D.C. -- MomsRising, the #CareCantWait Coalition, and 100+ allied organizations are holding the first-ever MOMibuster today, turning the tables on Congress by filibustering them to send the message that, in order to succeed, families need a care infrastructure, including: affordable child care, free pre-K, paid family and medical leave, quality maternal health care for everyone, home- and community-based services, affordable prescription drugs, and monthly Child Tax Credit checks that are fully refundable. Part Mother’s Day celebration, part plea for help, and part call to action, the MOMibuster features hundreds of moms from across the country sharing their stories and discussing the policies they need. More than 40 members of Congress also contributed videos.

“Moms need much more than chocolate and flowers for Mother’s Day this year,” said MomsRising Executive Director and CEO Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. “Two years into a pandemic that has forced women out of the workforce, disproportionately harmed moms of color, caused child care programs to close, and made life immeasurably harder for moms and families, we need real policy solutions – and we need them now. That’s what our MOMibuster is all about, giving voice to the issues moms and parents face and the solutions we all need. And this isn’t a one-weekend event, we’re also making calls to Congress, organizing in our communities, and much more.”

The MOMibuster is airing from noon ET to 8 pm ET/9 am PT to 5pm PT Saturday here and on the social media channels of dozens of partners. Because the response from moms was overwhelming, a longer version will also be posted on MomsRising’s YouTube channel after the event. The online event includes moms talking about how they were pushed out of the workforce during the pandemic because they couldn’t find affordable child care, parents discussing missing time with their babies because they are without paid family and medical leave, caregivers struggling to make ends meet despite impossibly low wages, families facing food and housing insecurity since the monthly Child Tax Credit payments ended, and more. They include:

• Christina in Michigan who shares that she went without medical care because she did not have paid leave. She worried that if she lost pay, she wouldn’t be able to take care of her daughter. “I don’t want any other mothers to have to make the choice between going to work and taking care of their health.”

• Octavia who shares her support for the Black Mama’s Bail Out, an effort to raise funds to pay bail for mothers who have been incarcerated and reunite them with their families. 

• Sandra in Washington who shares that as a single grandparent raising her grandson, she struggles with the rising cost of prescription medications, rent, health insurance premiums, groceries and other essentials. “Taking away the expanded Child Tax Credit really, really has hurt us.” 

• To-Wen in California who shares that she and her husband waited four years to have a second child because the cost of child care for one child was more than her mortgage. When the pandemic hit and her hours were cut in half, she had to drain her emergency savings to keep her son’s spot in a child care program. “No family should have to struggle for child care like mine has.”

• Tammie in Florida who shares her financial struggles as a full-time unpaid family caregiver for her disabled husband. “I truly think that all of our communities would benefit from more community-based, in-home services to help families that struggle to make it from one month to the next.”

• Katherine in North Carolina who shares that her family lives paycheck to paycheck because she cannot find high-quality, affordable child care for her youngest. “If there were affordable care, if there weren’t waitlists that were months and months long … I would be able to be working right now.” 

• Chelsea in Nevada who shares that when her daughter is sick and she has to miss work to care for her, she loses pay but still has to pay for child care. She calls on Congress to pass paid sick days for all. 

• Corrine in Wisconsin, an in-home child care provider, who shares the challenges she’s faced during the pandemic and says child care providers need more support. She also says the Child Tax Credit payments were a “godsend” for her family and her students’ families.  

MomsRising and the #CareCantWait coalition also placed a full-page ad in the DC edition of the New York Times Friday that carries the headline: Forget Chocolate, The Gift We Want Is Progress!

In addition, the MOMibuster video will be projected on LED trucks in front of the U.S. Capitol today through Tuesday.

And MomsRising is also delivering moms' stories and paper flower bouquets to each member of Congress next Tuesday.

For details and to be connected to MOMibuster participants, contact magen@momsrising.org or lisa@momsrising.org.