August 8, 2025
A groundbreaking study on Black maternal health has been abruptly cut short after losing federal funding, prompting its lead researcher to warn that vital voices—and lives—are at risk.
When epidemiologist Jaime Slaughter-Acey learned her federally NIH-funded study on birth outcomes for Black families had been abruptly canceled, she says it felt like “the rug was pulled out from under us.” The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill associate professor had been leading a multi-year project aimed at understanding how racism, social environments, and biology intersect to affect maternal and infant health in Black communities.
“It was heartbreaking,” she told The Guardian, “and honestly, infuriating given the high rates of maternal and infant mortality in this country.”
The $2.4 million National Institutes of Health, or NIH, grant—awarded to follow more than 500 Black women in Detroit—was terminated in March. NIH officials cited shifting priorities and said the research project would not significantly increase life expectancy.
The move froze over $581,000 in remaining funds, halting research that Slaughter-Acey described as “the first study to comprehensively examine how exposure to structural, cultural, and intergenerational racism throughout a Black woman’s life impacts her epigenome and her child’s birth outcomes.”
The cancellation came amid broader funding cuts under the Trump administration. Between January and July, 1,902 NIH grants—worth $4.4 billion—were eliminated. Other terminated projects examined prenatal exposure to contaminated drinking water and racial disparities in cervical cancer deaths. The administration also downsized the CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health, which tracks maternal mortality.
Slaughter-Acey fears the decision signals a stall in efforts to close the maternal death gap. Recent CDC data shows Black women remain the only racial group without a decline in pregnancy-related deaths in 2023—50.3 per 100,000 live births, compared to 14.5 for white women.
“It’s part of a larger pattern of political interference in science that puts the health of all people at risk,” she said. “When science is silenced, communities suffer.”
Her Detroit-based research, launched in 2021, gathered surveys, blood samples, and birth records from mothers, grandmothers, and infants. The goal was to connect social determinants—like housing insecurity, food access, and experiences of discrimination—to biological markers and pregnancy outcomes.
Findings so far revealed that one in five mothers faced housing instability during pregnancy, and many reported racial microaggressions from healthcare providers.
The team had planned to expand participant follow-ups to 12 months postpartum to help define “maternal thriving,” moving the conversation beyond survival. “We need to get past this conversation of maternal survival and move to thriving,” Slaughter-Acey said.
For now, the project survives on short-term funding from Michigan State University, allowing nearly 600 mothers to remain enrolled throughout the year. Slaughter-Acey is seeking private donations to keep it alive, urging supporters to contribute to UNC’s Department of Epidemiology. “The voices of these 500-plus moms and babies should not die or be silenced with the termination of this grant,” she said. “This is an example of erasure of Black mothers and infants.”
If funding runs out, she warns, crucial insights into the social and biological roots of racial disparities in maternal health could be lost—just when they’re needed most.
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