Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will impact women

The legislation would affect every aspect of American society—for people and businesses. But the bill’s demolition of the American social safety net means that women will be especially impacted. 

A key tenet of the bill’s current iteration is a whopping $1.1 trillion in cuts over the next decade to Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Currently, 24 million women are enrolled in Medicaid; 56% of those women are of reproductive age, according to research from the National Partnership for Women and Families. Women of color make up over half of this group as well. 

“It’s really easy to think about access to healthcare as a social issue, but the truth is, we’re also talking about a really critical economic issue: being healthy and being able to participate in the workforce [is] critical to keep the American capitalist system going,” says Cynthia Plotch, co-founder of Winx Health, a women’s reproductive health brand. 

The bill would cut off Medicaid funding for abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood. While the Hyde Amendment prevents federal funding from being used to cover abortion, the bill would bar Medicaid from covering the cost of any non-abortion services that Planned Parenthood provides, such as STI testing and cancer screening. 

“The more and more women are denied access to care, whether that be abortion [or] other care, the more likely they are to face debt, financial instability, [and] remove themselves from the workforce because of unwanted children,” Plotch says. 

The most sizable cuts to Medicaid would come from a new work requirement, in which enrollees would have to consistently file paperwork to prove they work for at least 80 hours a month. “It’s really based on very outdated racist and sexist stereotypes about those who receive benefits,” Sharmili Majmudar, executive vice president of policy, programs, and research at Women Employed, a Chicago-based nonprofit, says. Four out of five nonworking, able-bodied adults on Medicaid are women, with an average age of 41, according to research from the Milbank Memorial Fund, a foundation focused on population health and equity. 

Currently, the bill is being pushed through the House, where it faces resistance from several GOP members. Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have been meeting with key holdout votes in an effort to coalesce before a July 4 deadline. Women in the Senate and the House have been critical voices in both outright opposition to the legislation—and as swing votes using their political power to influence the bill’s ultimate outcome. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who cast a critical yes vote on the bill, acknowledged that “in many parts of the country, there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged” by the legislation; her holdout helped Alaska come out with more funding. On Wednesday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) ridiculed the bill on the House floor, arguing that if her Republican colleagues believe the bill is beautiful, they’re suffering from “very blurred vision.” 

Sara Braun
sara.braun@fortune.com

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Sara Braun. Subscribe here.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

– Verdict’s in. A jury acquitted Sean “Diddy” Combs of racketeering and sex trafficking charges, but found him guilty of two counts of transportation for prostitution. Prosecutors said they will seek a four-to-five year prison sentence for Combs on the prostitution charges; other charges he faced could have carried a life sentence. NBC News

– Liberal victory. The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the state’s 176-year-old abortion ban on Wednesday. The court ruled 4-3 with a liberal majority and argued that the 1849 law was superseded by newer regulations. Associated Press

– Women at work. Young women are working at higher rates than ever before. About 78% of women born in the 1990s are employed, according to new research from the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. A major factor in rising female participation in the workforce is increased flexibility, with options such as teleworking increasing fourfold from 2019 to 2023. The 19th

– The endless interview. Paramount announced that the company has agreed to pay President Trump $16 million to settle the lawsuit he filed over a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election. The media conglomerate also agreed as part of the settlement to release written transcripts of future 60 Minutes interviews with presidential candidates.  New York Times

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

RAJ Sports announced the appointment of Clare Hamill as interim president of the new Portland WNBA franchise. She most recently served as the VP of innovation integration at Nike. 

Appian, a platform for process orchestration, automation, and intelligence, appointed Vicky Nisbet as SVP of sales, UK and EMEA. She most recently served as SVP at Salesforce. 

The Burda Group, a German media company, named Meredith Whittaker to its board of directors. She currently serves as the president of Signal. 

Synedgen, a biotechnology company focused on gastrointestinal therapies, appointed Dr. Laura Saward as president and chief executive officer. She previously served as chief scientific officer at the company. 

ON MY RADAR

CEOs are obsessing over ‘permacrisis’ problems but not leading frontline employees, warns former A&T leader Fortune

Bank it like Beckham: How female footballers are building media companies The Athletic

Justice Kagan won 70% of the time Wall Street Journal

PARTING WORDS

“When I was younger, a lot of the roles I was offered, or I went for, had their ambitions or character arcs revolving around their own desirability, or the male gaze, or a male-centred story. That is less frequent, though—something has shifted.”

— Scarlett Johansson on the evolution of roles for women in Hollywood