The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health, which the Trump administration attempted to shutter last year, terminated critical grants focused on infant and maternal health. The grants, which totalled $38 million over four years, represented half the office’s existing grants and included programs that provide postpartum home visits, work to reduce infant mortality, and provide fresh produce to underserved communities. 

In the grant termination notices, HHS utilized language that aligns with the tenets of “blame-and-shame fertility.” Specifically, grantees were told to shape their programs around “reducing overmedicalization in health care by addressing the root causes of infertility,” which they identified as hormonal imbalances, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, low sperm count, low testosterone levels and erectile dysfunction.