Environmental Deregulation and Emerging Risks for Maternal and Child Health

The United States has long been a leader in protecting human health through environmental regulation. Since 2025, however, environmental deregulation has reversed or eliminated many air, land, water, and climate protections. This shift in federal policy has, and will continue to have, serious consequences for the health of pregnant women, infants, and children. In this article, we examine environmental regulatory changes since January 2025 and evaluate their current and potential effects on maternal, infant, and child health outcomes. We use Bardach's eight-fold path to review major federal actions, including the revocation of the greenhouse gas endangerment findings, the weakening of toxic air pollution standards and their enforcement, and the rollback of environmental justice programs that directly address the disproportionate burden of environmental pollution on women, infants, and children in at-risk communities. We conclude with policy and practice recommendations to strengthen environmental health protections and safeguard maternal and child health amid ongoing deregulation. The purpose of this series is to critically examine emerging federal and state health policy changes and their implications for the health and well-being of women, childbearing families, and young children and to provide evidence-based analyses that inform the nurses who care for these populations. The author solicitation and preparation of each article are overseen by series coordinators Mindy B. Tinkle, PhD, RN, WHNP-BC, CNE, FAAN, associate professor, and Nick Edwardson, PhD, MS, associate professor, College of Nursing, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.