As an associate professor in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Jamie Slaughter-Acey was using her education and her interest in the Black maternal health crisis to make a difference and try to increase positive birth outcomes for Black mothers – that is, until her research funding was cut.
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With an over $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Slaughter-Acey was studying the impact of social and biological factors on a sample of more than 500 Black women in Detroit. Researchers were trying to determine whether or not the mother’s social environment is a risk factor during pregnancy.
The funding cut was one of over 1,900 grants eliminated by the Trump administration and a casualty of the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE), Elon Musk’s pet project to eliminate wasteful spending in various government agencies. To add insult to injury, Slaughter-Acey learned about the cut to her research grant in an email from the National Institutes of Health, which stated that studies like hers “are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race and other protected characteristics, which harms the health of Americans.”
But Slaughter-Acey doesn’t see it that way. She says her work, while focused on Black mothers, could help everyone.
“If you strip away race, what we’re doing matters for every mom and baby in this country,” she told Bloomberg Law.
Although she has received support from Michigan State University to keep her study going for the next few months, Slaughter-Acey is looking for alternative sources of long-term funding, including donations, to keep her study going. She wants to make sure the well-being of Black mothers and their children continues to be a priority.
“The voices of these 500 plus moms and babies should not die or be silenced with the termination of this grant,” she told the Guardian.
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