Policy Co-Chairs Kamlager-Dove and Ross Lead Democratic Women’s Caucus in Demanding Trump Admin Stop Attacking Women’s Health Research

WASHINGTON, D.C. —Democratic Women’s Caucus Policy Task Force Co-Chairs Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) and Deborah Ross (NC-02) led 30 members in a letter to President Trump calling on him to stop his persistent attacks on women’s health research. 

As part of their demand to stop the attack on women’s health research, the Members called on the administration to remove a cap on indirect research costs at the National Institutes of Health, which cover funding for laboratory space, research equipment, faculty salaries, and building utilities—all critical to making progress. The letter also called on the administration to rescind their list of banned and discouraged words, which could limit research on topics that include words such as “women” and “female.” The letter also calls on the administration to prioritize funding for women’s health research. 

Women’s health research has long been severely underfunded. Historic investments by the Biden administration started the necessary progress in understanding how women are impacted by health conditions and made great strides towards treatments and interventions for many women-specific diseases. Devastatingly, the Trump administration eliminating, defunding, and restricting women’s health care research puts this progress in jeopardy and threatens the lives and well-being of women and girls—now and into the future. 

In their letter, the Members explained why research focused on women’s health care is so critical:

“Between 2013 and 2023, the NIH awarded only 8.8% of grant dollars to projects focused on women’s health. Rather than encouraging more research focused on women’s health, your administration’s actions are destroying the limited research projects in existence. As a result of the funding cap and the lack of clarity with the list of banned words, women-centered research projects are being rescinded at an alarming rate. These projects include research on early breast cancer detection and long-term health outcomes for children born to mothers who contracted COVID-19 during their pregnancies. Additionally, a $400,000 project to better study intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy was also terminated. Another critical project that is in danger includes a 7-year, $168 million initiative to investigate and improve maternal health outcomes.”

The Members continued, calling on the administration to end attacks on women’s health research:

“Your administration is endangering the lives of millions of women in every corner of the United States. We call on you to direct your administration to remove the research funding cap, rescind the list of banned words, and prioritize funding for women’s health research. Without this research, clinical trials will end, medications will not be approved, and new detection and treatment methods will stall – all of which will leave women to suffer and die, affecting families across the country.”

The full letter can be accessed here:

In addition to the leads Deborah K. Ross, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, and Teresa Leger Fernández, the letter was signed by Joyce Beatty, Julia Brownley, Judy Chu, Jasmine Crockett, Debbie Dingell, Sarah Elfreth, Lois Frankel, Laura Friedman, Sylvia Garcia, Chrissy Houlahan, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Teresa Leger Fernandez, Jennifer McClellan, Betty McCollum, LaMonica McIver, Gwen Moore, Eleanor Norton, Brittany Pettersen, Delia Ramirez, Deborah Ross, Andrea Salinas, Terri Sewell, Mikie Sherrill, Haley Stevens, Norma Torres, Lauren Underwood, Nydia Velázquez, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Nikema Williams, and Frederica Wilson.