RFK Jr. Cut the Black Infant Mortality Program to Fund Erectile Dysfunction

Robert F. Kennedy Junior’s Health Department canceled sixteen grants last month, including the program trying to keep Black babies alive in the Arkansas Delta, and told the people running it the money’s going to erectile dysfunction instead.I read that three times. NOTUS has the letters.The Office of Minority Health killed sixteen grants worth thirty eight million dollars, more than half of what it had, and everybody was already two years in. The letters went out August twenty fifth, all basically identical, which is the care you bring when you’ve decided the outcome first.Here’s what didn’t make the cut. Postpartum home visits. Cancer screenings. Infant and maternal death among Black families in Arkansas. Childhood obesity among Native kids. And here’s what did, quoting the letter, “reducing overmedicalization in health care by addressing the root causes of infertility.” Which they define as hormonal imbalances, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, low sperm count, low testosterone, and erectile dysfunction.They cut cancer screenings to reduce overmedicalization, then moved the money to testosterone prescriptions.And look, I want to be fair to erectile dysfunction. It is the best funded health problem in America. It has pills. It has generic pills. It has telehealth companies whose whole business is mailing them to you in a plain envelope. It has commercials with two bathtubs sitting outdoors on a hill for reasons no one has ever explained. The private market solved this in nineteen ninety eight. Then Kennedy looked at the one condition in this country that’s fully handled and said you know who needs a hand, the fellas.They also called it a root cause of infertility, which is generous. It’s a delivery problem. They’re funding the truck.The other new priority, again quoting, is programs promoting “regular physical activity and exercise.” So the federal strategy on Black maternal mortality in Arkansas is walking.Grantees wrote back asking if there’d been a mistake. The department told groups focused on mothers and babies that their work “does not advance minority health.” Maternal and infant health does not advance minority health. That came out of Health and Human Services.The Arkansas grant belonged to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Their spokesperson didn’t know why it got cut, but added, “it’s certainly a big issue in our state considering we’re number one in the country.” Number one. In babies and mothers dying. That’s the one they picked.In Colorado, Illuminate Colorado used its grant to send nurses into the homes of new mothers. Its co-executive director found out from a form letter that this is no longer minority health.Congresswoman Diana DeGette wrote the assistant secretary for health that it’s “shocking that OMH under any leadership would prioritize erectile dysfunction over the health and wellbeing of infants and new mothers.” Shocking is doing heavy lifting. Ronald Reagan created this office. They tried to kill it last year. Next year’s budget cuts what’s left by forty percent.They said they’d fund root causes. The root cause of a baby dying in the Delta is that nobody came to the house. They defunded the person who comes to the house so a guy in Ohio can get a second opinion on a problem Pfizer fixed in nineteen ninety eight.Sources:https://www.notus.org/health-science/hhs-cancels-infant-mortality-postpartum-grants-focus-infertility Get full access to The Rogue Voice aka Linsay Rousseau at linsayrousseau.substack.com/subscribe