Trump cancels NIH grants on equity research

Jessie Hellmann, CQ-Roll Call on Mar 24, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is canceling dozens of National Institutes of Health grants funding health equity research, including work studying Black maternal and fetal health and HIV.

Grantees were told in termination notices delivered over the last several days that their project “no longer effectuates agency priorities” and that “so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) studies are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race.”

Advancing health equity was a priority of the Biden administration, creating a tacit acknowledgment that people of color often have worse health outcomes than white people because of racism, increased barriers to accessing health care and other factors.

That fact has been widely been adopted by researchers, health organizations, providers and the medical establishment.

But the Trump administration appears to reject that health disparities exist and that research based on “amorphous equity objectives” are “antithetical to the scientific inquiry, do nothing to expand our knowledge of living systems, provide low returns on investment, and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness,” according to the termination letters.

Health and Human Services Department spokesman Andrew Nixon defended the cuts — which were listed on the department’s website — saying “HHS is taking action to terminate research funding that is not aligned with NIH and HHS priorities.”

“At HHS, we are dedicated to restoring our agencies to their tradition of upholding gold-standard, evidence-based science. As we begin to Make America Healthy Again, it’s important to prioritize research that directly affects the health of Americans,” he said. “We will leave no stone unturned in identifying the root causes of the chronic disease epidemic as part of our mission to Make America Healthy Again.”

One canceled NIH grant had been awarded to Jaime Slaughter-Acey, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who was studying studying birth outcomes in Black families.

“This rationale disregards the critical need to address health disparities and the systemic inequities that contribute to the high mortality rates among Black mothers and infants,” Slaughter-Acey wrote on LinkedIn.

That Black woman and babies experience worse health outcomes than their white counterparts is well-known in the medical community, and a concerted effort has been made across the health system to address it in recent years.

“The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed countries and ranks 54th for infant mortality,” said Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine President Sindhu Srinivas. “Cutting research funding and critical public health programs that support perinatal care only serves to worsen this problem.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is among the Republicans who have expressed concerns about maternal health disparities faced by Black women.

The terminations appear in line with President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.”

Other grants being canceled include a project studying autism in girls, several studies related to HIV among Latino and Black men who have sex with men, and a study aiming to reduce health disparities in Black youth with chlamydia.

The NIH also canceled a grant for the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV Interventions, which aimed to improve prevention and treatment for youth who have HIV or are at risk for it. It was part of dozens of HIV-related grants canceled in recent days.

“Turning our back on HIV research — before we have reached all who need it with HIV treatment or prevention and discovered a cure — will leave us all more vulnerable to HIV and other infectious diseases and have serious consequences for global health security here at home and around the world,” HIV Medicine Association Chair Colleen Kelley said in a statement.

“If the assault on NIH-funded research goes forward, we will see spikes in new HIV infections, a resurgence in deaths from AIDS and tuberculosis and tremendous increases in health care costs.”