A Community Decision: The Future of One Mom's Battle
UPDATE MAY 17 at 7:30 am: we have raised enough money to pay for our insurance costs for the year. We are still fundraising for mounting legal fees, and if you are interested in donating, here is the link for the GoFund me account.
The blog I never thought I would have to write.
In February 2026, I announced that I was stepping back from One Mom's Battle. I told this community that while I needed to step down, the platform would remain, and I meant that. What I did not know then was that a new development would emerge that changes everything and forces a decision I cannot make alone.
My business insurance policy expires this week. Due to circumstances I will explain below, my carrier declined to renew. My insurance agent worked overtime to find a new carrier, and every potential company responded with a single word: “declined.”
On Friday, a quote finally came through but the premium has more than doubled, and I am unable to proceed.
Without insurance, I cannot operate One Mom's Battle.
The liability is too great.
For those who want to understand the full picture of how we got here, or how you can help…I invite you to keep reading.
15 Years of Advocacy
It was the fall of 2011 when I bought the domain name onemomsbattle.com and wrote my first blog post. I had no plan. No strategy. No roadmap. I was two years into my personal family court battle, my children were being failed at every turn, I could not afford an attorney, and I could not find a single person talking openly about what was happening inside family courtrooms across this country. My little blog turned into a global conversation because it was not just my battle. It was an international crisis.
For the first couple of years, I spent every spare minute encouraging others and helping wherever and whenever I could. Our online community grew organically and began to reach the far corners of the world. On December 11, 2012, I published my first book.
In 2014, I successfully protected my own children. It would have been easy to walk away and leave this chapter in my rearview mirror, but I could not bring myself to do it. I could not unsee what was happening to children in courtrooms across the country. I took a leap of faith, left my career in public relations and marketing, and dedicated myself to this cause full-time. Over the years, I have invested enormous amounts of time, energy, and my own financial resources into helping others and raising awareness, because children's lives were on the line.
In November 2020, with the help of a fellow advocate, I launched Family Court Awareness Month. I packed my entire family into an RV and drove coast to coast, making seven stops along the way to hold events and raise awareness about the family court crisis. I funded that trip entirely out of my own pocket. I did not receive a single donation. Over the years, we have received proclamations and resolutions from over 300 cities, counties, and states declaring November as Family Court Awareness Month. Even more powerful, we created a platform for survivors to start these important conversations within their own communities.
On August 1, 2021, something happened that I still consider one of the most significant moments in this advocacy journey. Together with two other advocates, Custody Peace and Movement of Mothers, and over one hundred mothers from across the United States, we submitted a formal complaint to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, denouncing the United States government and its states for systematic human rights violations against women and children in family court. We implored them to investigate the family court crisis.
The complaint documented what so many in this community know firsthand: systemic gender bias, discrimination based on sex, and the facilitation of physical, sexual, financial, legal, and emotional abuse of women and children. It documented the tendency of courts to discredit mothers who raise abuse concerns, the weaponization of parental alienation as a legal counterclaim, the punishment of protective parents who speak up, and the use of family court itself as a tool of ongoing coercive control. The women who submitted personal letters alongside that complaint were extraordinarily brave. Their words put a human face on what academic research had long confirmed: this was not isolated failure. This was a pattern.
Six months later, in March 2022, Kayden's Law passed at the federal level as part of the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization. Named for Kayden Mancuso, a seven-year-old girl from Pennsylvania who was killed by her father during court-ordered unsupervised visitation despite her mother raising significant safety concerns, the law did four critical things: it restricted expert testimony to those with demonstrated expertise in domestic violence and child abuse; it limited the use of reunification camps that could not be proven safe or effective; it required evidence-based training for judges and court personnel on family violence; and it required courts to consider documented evidence of past abuse in custody decisions.
The point closest to my heart was ending reunification camps, experimental programs that have faced intense scrutiny. What followed was years of coordinated, community-driven legislative work that I have watched in awe. Dedicated advocates, survivors, legislators, and attorneys across the country poured their hearts into these efforts, and the results have been nothing short of remarkable.
I was honored to play a role in some of these victories. Coordinating leads to bring Kayden's Law to individual states was something I was deeply passionate about. In California, my organization cosponsored a similar bill called Piqui's Law, honoring five-year-old Piqui Andressian, who was murdered by his father. I attended multiple legislative hearings in support of that bill, helped organize rallies and calls to action, and spoke at two press conferences organized by Senator Susan Rubio. In Utah, I connected with Ty Larson, a teenager who was barricading himself and his younger sister in a room to avoid being sent to a reunification camp in Texas. We helped organize a peaceful demonstration at the Utah State Capitol in February 2023. Utah advocates went on to pass Om's Law, in remembrance of Om Gandhi, who was murdered by his father despite his mother's desperate fight to protect him. This law prohibited judges from ordering children into these reunification programs. In Texas, I worked behind the scenes to support the advocates who carried that bill across the finish line. In other states, I simply cheered from the sidelines. Every single effort, regardless of my involvement, left me humbled and grateful for the people willing to stand up for children.
The results speak for themselves. California's Piqui's Law. Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Tennessee, New Hampshire, and ultimately Texas, where HB 3783 passed. Texas is especially significant because it is the birthplace of the reunification industry. Every one of these laws cut off significant money flow to those who had built a lucrative industry around these programs.
These are not fringe concerns. The Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, and other major outlets have investigated these programs extensively. Children who have been sent to them have come forward with allegations of abuse, and experts and researchers have raised serious questions about their safety and efficacy. Multiple documentaries, including the upcoming Hulu docuseries "The Nightmare Upstairs: What Happened to Ty and Bryn?" are expected to shine an even brighter light on these programs.
In 2023, UN Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem presented her landmark report to the Human Rights Council, titled "Custody, Violence Against Women and Violence Against Children." The report was unequivocal. It described deeply embedded gender bias pervading family court systems across the globe. It called parental alienation an unscientific pseudo-concept, noting that it had already been removed from the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases in 2020, and recommended that countries legislate to prohibit its use in family law cases. It documented that when fathers allege alienation, mothers lose custody 44% of the time. When the situation is reversed, mothers gained custody from fathers only 28% of the time. The Special Rapporteur called out the failure of courts to prioritize the best interests of children and urged the international community to recognize the human rights dimension of the violence so many mothers and children experience inside family court systems.
The Cost of Speaking the Truth - and being a Whistleblower
Every time a law passed, money stopped flowing to those who had created lucrative revenue streams around these experimental programs. I want you to understand what that has meant for me personally.
For the past few years, I have been a target. It has intensified with each passing year and each passing law. There have been coordinated campaigns, websites, videos, smear efforts, stalking, and harassment. Someone publicly suggested I should be put through a woodchipper. A leader in a father's rights group labeled me "public enemy number one" and said my "influence must be addressed if they're ever going to see progress." I have had my location made public, even though I am enrolled in a protected address program. Most recently, a man told me that he could make all of it stop if I would agree to a laundry list of demands, including putting him in touch with my daughters. I wrote about some of what I have faced earlier this year. You can read it here: When Advocacy Becomes Dangerous: The Growing Threat.
Most recently, my energy has been focused on protecting myself legally, through the criminal justice system, law enforcement and filing complaints with governing boards where applicable.
It is my belief that there are coordinated, strategic efforts underway to silence me through harassment and litigation. While I am unable to comment on specifics, I am currently facing two lawsuits. As a result, my insurance company declined to renew my policy. My agent worked to find a carrier willing to cover One Mom's Battle and exhausted every option.
The targeted harassment and legal battles I am navigating have devastated me personally, financially, emotionally, and in every area of my life. I am still actively fundraising for legal bills. In February, I made the difficult decision to shut down our social media platforms because the harassment had grown to a level that my doctor felt I should no longer be navigating. The stress was causing significant flares and increased symptoms with the rare disease I have been diagnosed with.
I cannot operate One Mom's Battle without insurance.
The liability is too great, and I cannot in good conscience continue without it.
The quote I have received is $6,159 per year.
If financed, the cost rises to $7,400.
This is not something I can afford given my current situation.
This Decision Belongs to All of Us
I have always led this community with transparency. I am not going to stop now.
One Mom's Battle has meant too much to too many people for me to make this decision alone. If everything were to end tomorrow, I know that I could put my head on my pillow and know that I have done my part. I also know that there is still a great deal of work to be done, so I am asking for your collective wisdom and your help.
If you can contribute, Paypal is tina@onemomsbattle.com or Venmo is @onemomsbattle. If I can raise enough to cover the cost of insurance, I will move forward and update the community. If we fall short, every donation will be refunded in full.
I am also actively weighing other options, including the possibility of selling the OMB social media platforms - it is very important to me that anyone taking over would honor our movement and mission. I will continue exploring every avenue before a final decision is made.
What is at stake is significant.
If One Mom's Battle closes, it means the website, the private chapters, the blog archive, and the 250,000 people across Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram who have found community, resources, and a lifeline here. All of it would be gone. While I currently feel exhausted and depleted, I will keep fighting if you are able to stand with me.
I started this with a blog post and a broken heart. I never imagined it would grow into legislative change or reach the United Nations. I never imagined how many children's lives would be changed because a small community of survivors refused to be silent. I am grateful for every single one of you, because it has taken a village.
We are in this together - until the end.
With love and gratitude,
Tina Swithin
Founder, One Mom's Battle & Author, Divorcing a Narcissist
