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After vowing on the campaign trail to serve as women’s “protector” whether they like it or not, Donald Trump has taken multiple steps — like defunding a federal program that provides advocates for child abuse survivors and closing an agency that combats sex trafficking — that undermine efforts to combat violence against women and girls. Now, it looks like several groups that engage in anti-violence work are tired of all that purported protection.
Multiple advocacy groups that work with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault are suing Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department over the new guidelines, issued by the department’s Office on Violence Against Women, that require organizations receiving federal grants to confirm they’re not promoting “gender ideology”; hosting “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion programs; or prioritizing services for “illegal aliens.” It’s typical for anti-violence groups to discuss gender inequality, and many of these groups provide aid for victims regardless of their immigration status.
As women-focused news outlet The 19th reported, “The National Women’s Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of 17 state domestic violence and sexual assault organizations on Monday, arguing that restrictions the Trump administration has placed on grants are illegal and conflict with requirements laid out in the Violence Against Women Act.”
The suit claims:
Plaintiffs and their members are thus left in an impossible position. If they refrain from applying for OVW grants, they will lose out on funding that is critical to their ability to provide the services they have long promised and offered, that victims and survivors rely on for safety and protection, and that some organizations need to continue operating at all. Yet if they make the required certifications, they will immediately expose their organizations to substantial legal and financial risk, on top of agreeing to statements antithetical to their core values.
The Department of Justice declined to comment to MSNBC on the suit.
Reports have already emerged of anti-domestic violence groups seeing their funding cut for projects due to the Trump administration’s chauvinistic anti-diversity restrictions. HuffPost’s Alanna Vagianos published a report on cuts to a grant to study and prevent violence against pregnant women and other research, as well as the struggles of anti-domestic violence groups trying to navigate the Trump administration’s censorship.
Rather than comply with Trump’s restrictions and muzzle themselves in ways that might undermine their important work, some of these groups are fighting back in court so they can pursue that work unencumbered.