When asked whether she feels exhausted or energized by her work, Abby Jacobs said both.
Jacobs, 39, lives in Grosse Pointe Woods and works in tech. But the work she’s talking about is advocating for things she wishes already existed to support moms like herself.
A mother to three kids, Jacobs became the cofounder of Michigan’s chapter of the Chamber of Mothers, a national issues-based advocacy nonprofit, because she struggled as a parent with things like lack of paid leave after giving birth and finding affordable childcare.
She felt like “if you’re gonna complain, you gotta do something about it,” in hopes that her kids won’t have to deal with the struggles she has faced in 20 years.
Jacobs understands that moms are not a monolith.
“Moms have all sorts of different political beliefs,” she said. “There’s a lot that we can agree on that doesn’t have to turn into this bitter partisan battle.”
Here are policies four Michigan moms say they want passed right now:
Building Blocks package for cash to parents and affordable childcare
Jacobs said she has long been fed up with the hefty cost of parenting. Some moms she knows have forgone having kids because of things like the astronomical cost of childcare in Michigan.
In a survey of around 100 moms that her organization conducted recently, around half of respondents said they either delayed having kids or had no additional kids because of childcare costs.
For Jacobs, that’s the main reason she hasn’t had a fourth baby.
“I don’t want to keep putting our lives on hold so we can pay for childcare,” Jacobs said.
That’s why she supports the Building Blocks plan, a package of six bills in Lansing aimed at lowering the price of parenting, she said, which includes a $5,500 working parents tax credit for families with kids through age 3 (though Jacobs said she’d like to see the tax credit extended to families with kids all the way up to school age). It includes a statewide expansion of Rx Kids, a cash support program for moms during pregnancy and in the first six to 12 months postpartum, that has expanded to 39 Michigan communities so far.
The package also seeks to lower the price of childcare by making permanent Michigan’s Tri-Share pilot program, a state program businesses can offer employees that splits the cost of childcare between the employer, the state, and the individual), among other solutions. Jacobs said this is the piece of the bill she’s tentative on, since Tri-Share relies on employers opting in to share the cost of childcare, potentially limiting its impact.
“I just wish it was easier to explain, hey, this isn’t just a family or female issue, this is a societal issue,” Jacobs said. “The health of moms, kids, and families is essential to people being able to work, go to school, and be productive members of society.”
Bill status: All bills in the package, originally introduced in Michigan’s Senate in May 2025, remain there in various stages of consideration.
Energy Bill Relief Act for clean air and lower energy bills for families
When Elizabeth Hauptman’s only child Oscar was little, his trouble breathing landed him in the emergency room multiple times before he was officially diagnosed with asthma. Hauptman’s son is one of about 141,000 children in Michigan with the condition, according to American Lung Association data.
“That has to do with living in a polluted area, in areas where there’s more particle pollution, industry, highways, putting all that in the air that ends up in kids’ lungs, hearts and brains,” she said.
It was Oscar’s condition that originally got her involved in Moms Clean Air Force, a national advocacy organization dedicated to protecting children’s health on environment and climate-related issues. Hauptman, of Livingston County, now works for its Michigan chapter, where she’s trying to build momentum behind a federal bill aimed at lowering energy bills for families while protecting their health.
Hauptman said the Energy Bill Relief Act would help families save money by preventing utilities from shifting the cost of high electricity usage at sites like data centers to consumers and help expand affordable clean energy through tax credits so families don’t foot the bill for outdated and costly power plants. The bill also aims to shift the electric grid to being powered by clean energy, which she says is important for many reasons including protecting public health through reducing pollution from energy sources like coal.
“Moms manage household logistics, budgets, and see firsthand how rising costs are impacting our families,” Hauptman said.
In addition to increasing well-being by lowering costs, she says the bill is about protecting kids.
“Doesn’t matter what side of aisle we’re on,” she said. “If you want to protect our children, you’re making sure our air and water is safe.”
Bill status: The bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in March 2026 and remains pending.
“Momnibus” package for improving maternal health
There’ve been a number of legislative wins for Michigan moms in the last couple legislative sessions, including the expansion of support services for people during and after pregnancy like doula services and scholarships to train more doulas in Michigan (recent studies have shown doula effectiveness in better health outcomes) as well as the the funding and expansion of the Rx Kids program, said Danielle Atkinson, founder and director of Mothering Justice, a Detroit-based policy advocacy organization
Rx Kids “was a huge victory because it relieves the stress,” said Atkinson. “We know so many families go into poverty when welcoming a new family member.”
On the heels of these wins, Atkinson said her mom-powered organization is looking to get the Momnibus — a play on the term “omnibus bill” which refers to a bundle of different bills — passed.
The Momnibus is a package of 10 bills focused primarily on improving maternal health outcomes in Michigan, she said, a state with a higher-than-national-average maternal mortality rate at about 19 maternal deaths per every 100,000 live births, 75% of which were preventable, where Black and Native American women die at disproportionate rates.
The package includes provisions like requiring private insurers in Michigan to reimburse licensed midwives for services and including midwife education programs in the state’s loan repayment program for essential health care providers. It would also expand Medicaid coverage for some pregnancy-related and gynecological services including telehealth options to expand access to care and create new forms of documenting and reporting on instances of obstetric racism and bias in medical settings.
Bill status: As of 2025, the Momnibus passed with some bipartisan support in the Democratic-controlled Michigan Senate but stalled in the House failing to reach Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk before the end of last year’s legislative session. The package remains pending in the Republican-controlled House.
Curbing immigration enforcement in hospitals, schools and churches
Formerly a nurse, now a doula, Detroiter Vilma Escamilla Duran said most of the families she works with either have mixed immigration status or are undocumented. In the wake of increased ICE enforcement under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, she has seen new panic in the population she provides health care to both during and after pregnancy.
“Working in maternal health, the fear has just increased,” Escamilla Duran said. “By the time they get to me, they’re already way further along in their pregnancy. Folks are afraid of leaving the house.”
Escamilla Duran said getting consistent prenatal care is essential, especially in a community where higher stress can lead to higher-risk pregnancies.
That’s why she wants Senate Bill 508 passed, a state bill that’s part of the Protecting Michigan Immigrants package, introduced originally in 2025. After an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis in early 2026, bill authors pushed the package with renewed urgency.
The bill would prohibit immigration enforcement in certain “sensitive locations,” including specifically hospitals and organizations providing services to pregnant women, along with schools, places of worship and courthouses. These protections previously existed at the federal level until the Trump administration repealed the policy in 2025.
“All these [places] are central to moms and families,” said Escamilla Duran, who, given her profession, says she sees this as a matter of public health.
Bill status: This bill remains in the Michigan Senate awaiting a vote. The House version of the bill, which was also introduced in 2025, remains pending.
Beki San Martin is a fellow at the Detroit Free Press who covers childcare, early childhood education and other issues that affect the lives of children ages 5 and under and their families in metro Detroit and across Michigan. Contact her at rsanmartin@freepress.com.
This fellowship is supported by the Bainum Family Foundation. The Free Press retains editorial control of this work.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Legislation 4 Michigan moms want passed right now
Reporting by Beki San Martin, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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