Several Pregnant Women Who Were Fired By Trump Grapple with The Stress of Losing Insurance and Looking for Work

Pregnant women who recently lost their jobs due to the Trump administration’s layoffs across the federal government are struggling with the impact on their health, finances, and futures.

Emily Erroa was eight months pregnant when she learned she was being fired from her human resources job at the Department of Energy.

“It stressed me out to the point where I did have to go into the hospital because I felt as though I caused too much stress to the baby,” she said. “They were calling me saying, ‘Oh, you’re fired. Oh, never mind. You’re not fired. You’re not on the list.’ And then they called me back and said, ‘You are on the list.’ These were way after work hours, and it was constant emails, daily things, and so now it’s affected everything.”

Erroa, a 38-year-old Army veteran and reservist based in Texas, has now had to move to Kansas City, Missouri, to be closer to family.

“It’s not like I could just say, ‘Oh, well, fine, I’ll just go get another job.’ I’m visibly pregnant. Nobody would ever hire me in their right mind, even though it’s discrimination,” she said. “But we live in reality, right? They would not hire me, and plus, I would need to have time off. My baby is due April 17.”

Thousands of federal workers have been fired from their government jobs in recent weeks amid efforts from President Donald Trump, his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, and the Department of Government Efficiency. But for Erroa and other pregnant women, the stakes are especially high.

Several pregnant federal workers—both in the U.S. and abroad—who recently lost their jobs have expressed concerns about unexpectedly searching for work, staying insured while needing prenatal care, and the impact of stress on their babies.

A White House spokesperson defended the recent federal layoffs.

"President Trump returned to Washington with a mandate from the American people to bring about unprecedented change in our federal government, uprooting waste, fraud, and abuse," White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement. "While this isn’t easy to do in a broken system entrenched in bureaucracy and bloat, it’s a necessary task for future generations."

When Anna Conn, a 35-year-old in Asheville, North Carolina, was abruptly fired from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention while eight months pregnant, her life was thrown into turmoil. Her government health insurance expires before her due date, and so far, switching to her husband’s plan hasn’t been possible. As an above-the-knee amputee, she also faces additional health costs related to her pregnancy, including a new prosthetic.

“They may need a document stating the exact date of coverage, which the federal government had not provided,” Conn said of trying to switch to her husband’s insurance.

She was among those caught up in mass firings where employees were universally given termination notices citing poor performance—despite having received excellent performance reviews.

The timing of her firing has also made applying for unemployment benefits difficult, as she would need to meet a minimum number of job applications each week.

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“With a brand-new baby,” she said. “That idea may go out the window.”

Gracie Lynn, 32, was recently fired from her job at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Lynn, who lives in Eugene, Oregon, had been seeing a maternal-fetal specialist due to concerns about a potential heart issue with her baby. She was immediately worried about facing thousands of dollars in medical bills. While doctors believe the baby will be fine, she had to wait two weeks before receiving the paperwork necessary to apply for temporary continuation of health care coverage.

“Being six months pregnant, it was really stressful,” she said. “I knew we had these two big doctor’s appointments coming up in the coming days. We had an appointment on Tuesday, and we had a fetal heart echo coming up on the Friday, like eight days after I got fired, and I immediately was like, ‘I need to know I’m going to be on health insurance. Who do I ask? How do I know when this ends?’”

Emily, a Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Agency for International Development employee, had spent years working nights and weekends during international conflicts, saving up paid time off for a planned maternity leave.

After banking hundreds of hours, she planned to extend the government’s policy of three months of paid maternity leave to five months when she gave birth later this year.

Then, at 11 weeks pregnant, she was told her contract had been terminated and that she would be out of a job in just 15 days. On the day she expected to finish her job, her contract was extended for another six weeks. While some of her saved PTO will be paid out, she said the amount is capped, meaning she will forfeit half of her saved time.

Natasha Weinstein, 38, was flying back home to Washington, D.C., from an international vacation when she got a text from her manager saying she and her fellow USAID workers had been locked out of the building.

Weinstein spent the next two weeks unsure if she still had a job before learning at 21 weeks pregnant that her contract would be terminated. Despite her colleagues advising against it, she returned to the office to retrieve personal belongings from her desk.

“I was just like, no, they have hundreds of dollars' worth of my personal items, photos, sonogram photos. I’m just not leaving that stuff there,” she said. “I said, you know, they took our jobs, they took our country, but they’re not taking my shoes, because all my work shoes were there. So now the group chat is called ‘They can’t take our shoes.’”

She described the termination as both financially challenging and emotionally upsetting, especially after receiving a mass email informing her of her firing—without even including her name.

“I’m doing my best not to get super, super stressed about all of it because I have lost a pregnancy in the third trimester before. So I’m trying to just stay calm and relax about everything, but it is terrifying in a lot of ways,” she said.

Another former USAID employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, lost her job at 29 weeks pregnant. She lives abroad and, as a result, will not qualify for unemployment or family leave benefits in the U.S. or her home country.

Previously deployed by the agency to the Middle East, she now faces serious financial uncertainty, which will also prevent her husband from taking unpaid time off.

“Looking down the barrel of being pregnant and giving birth and then taking a couple of months, ideally, to recover, the soonest I’m going to be applying to jobs is August,” she said.

“The soonest I’m going to get a job is October, November, and that’s like best-case scenario,” she added. “I’m looking at basically nine months—if not a year—of no income.”

Stand with These Women—Support Our Journalism Today

The stories of these pregnant federal employees highlight the real human cost of sweeping government layoffs. Their struggles with health care, financial stability, and job security deserve national attention. Investigative journalism like this ensures that their voices are heard and that those in power are held accountable.

If you believe in the power of truth-driven reporting, stand with these women by supporting our journalism. As a new or existing free subscriber, you can take advantage of our exclusive 50% discount on our annual plan today. Your support allows us to continue shedding light on critical issues and advocating for those who need it most.

🔹 Upgrade now with 50% off our annual plan and be part of the movement to tell stories that matter. Click on the button below.