Ralliers knock '100 days of harm' under Trump
BOSTON, Mass. (SHNS)–Advocates for health care, reproductive rights, immigrants and seniors ripped apart the 'unfathomable' and 'egregious' actions of President Donald Trump during his first 100 days in office on Tuesday, laying out the impacts Trump's policies have had across various sectors of the Bay State.
'I think the most concerning thing we're seeing right now is the chilling effect — people don't know, necessarily, what their rights are. They're confused about what they're able to access and what they cannot, even here in Massachusetts,' Claire Teylouni, senior director of policy and programs at Reproductive Equity Now, told the News Service.
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Reproductive Equity Now, alongside Health Care For All Massachusetts, Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, Massachusetts Senior Action Council and the Disability Policy Consortium, held a briefing outside of the JFK Federal Building Tuesday to highlight what they dubbed as Trump's '100 days of harm.'
'What we're seeing now is a signal of what's to come in terms of the actions that the administration will take,' Teylouni said. Though the Trump administration's investigation into diversity, equity and inclusion funding organizations has not yet impacted Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, and the state has comprehensive reproductive care protections, Taylouni is still concerned about the future.
'We['ve seen] the FDA comment that they are prepared to potentially make further restrictions on access to mifepristone, which is one of the key drugs in a two-drug medication abortion regimen,' she said. 'These actions are egregious.'
Teylouni said the effects of other related Trump administration decisions are already being felt nationwide, including the freezing of family planning funding at 13 Planned Parenthood affiliates; staff cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services; and the layoffs of staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who track maternal health, reproductive and fertility data.
The Trump administration is reportedly reviewing grant funding to ensure compliance with recent executive orders, and has been making department cuts as part of its efforts to limit waste, fraud and abuse.
Numerous White House memos published Monday and Tuesday elevated Trump's first 100 days in office. The White House tied itself to the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs since January and aid it had secured over $5 trillion in new U.S.-based investments since Trump took office.
On Health Care For All's multilingual helpline, which takes in tens of thousands of calls annually, 'people are calling and they're scared,' HCFA Executive Director Amy Rosenthal said.
'We get a lot of calls related to immigration. We get a lot of calls from people who are worried about losing their health insurance and people who are just confused on what to do,' Rosenthal said. 'I think part of the problem is there's the things that are actually happening, and there's all the threats, and it's the compounding of the two that's really terrible for people.'
Rosenthal said it can now take hours to get in touch with Medicare representatives when attempting to enroll people in the program, naming federal layoffs and cuts to the Social Security Administration as a reason behind the delays and barriers for seniors trying to enroll.
Rosa Bentley, president of Massachusetts Senior Action Council, said the administration's 'aggressive workforce cuts and operational changes' at the Social Security Administration erodes access to earned benefits and the 'contract between generations' the benefits represent.
'I will turn 80 years old this July, and while I have seen tremendous changes throughout my life, I never imagined I would see the wave of destruction that has defined President Trump's first 100 days,' Bentley said.
Trump has maintained that he will not cut Social Security, though there have been reports about staff cuts and plans to trim phone services. The potential for Congress to cut $880 billion in Medicaid would present another barrier, advocates said Tuesday, though Trump has also repeatedly said he will not touch Medicare or Medicaid.
'If passed, these cuts would jeopardize access to life-saving care for the one-in-three Massachusetts residents covered by MassHealth, including half of children in the state and nearly 500,000 seniors and people with disabilities,' Rosenthal said.
Dennis Heaphy, advocate and researcher at the Massachusetts Disability Policy Consortium, said Medicaid cuts, in cohesion with other Trump administration policies revolving around issues like immigration, would severely impact not just people with disabilities, but the families and people who care for them.
'Now, we find ourselves being denied our civil rights and being denied the actual right to exist,' Heaphy said. 'All of us are interconnected here, and I think that's one of the messages we really need to bring. If Medicaid goes away, our rights go away, [and] that's hundreds of thousands of jobs that are going to be taken away — a complete decimation of our economy.'
Advocates all touched on the impact Trump's immigration policy has already had on a cross-section of industries and the economy.
'I think it's fair to say that we did think that we were prepared, and this administration has absolutely exceeded our expectations — and not in a good way,' Elizabeth Sweet, executive director of MIRA, told the News Service.
'We really are facing a new reality in this country for immigrants, and honestly, for folks who are not immigrants. Some of the attacks on the system being made by this administration are affecting family members and citizens who are getting caught up in this enforcement,' Sweet continued.
A White House memo published Monday applauded the Trump administration's 'unprecedented effort to secure our homeland' and arrest 'criminal illegal immigrants' during Trump's first 100 days in office.
The Massachusetts congressional delegation has been vocal about Trump's immigration efforts. Sen. Ed Markey, Congressman Jim McGovern and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley recently visited Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, where she is being detained in Louisiana after being taken off the street in Somerville by plainclothes ICE officials. Öztürk wrote an op-ed in the Tufts student newspaper about the Israel-Gaza war in 2024.
The Trump administration says its immigration enforcement efforts are focused on illegal immigrants and criminals. Reports suggest American citizens have been wrongfully detained in the process.
MassDems President Steve Kerrigan also weighed in on the 100-day mark in a notice Tuesday afternoon.
'All that Donald Trump has accomplished in 100 days is a decade's worth of damage to an economy that was the envy of the world, to Americans' rights under the law, and to our standing as a beacon of freedom and democracy around the globe,' Kerrigan wrote.
MassGOP could not immediately be reached by the News Service for comment on Tuesday afternoon.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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