Researchers who have had grants for millions of dollars terminated by National Health Institutes (NIH) are suing the federal government in the hope of stopping any additional cancellation of research.
The lawsuit was brought on Wednesday night against NIH and its director Dr. JJ Bhathachary, as well as the Ministry of Health and Human Services (HHS) and HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr..
The plaintiffs are Dr. Brittany Charlton, Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health in Khan, who said all her grants were terminated because “no longer” no longer “no” no longer ” [effectuate] The agency’s priorities, “according to letters to terminate.
“Why am I standing up? I’m a scientist and therefore I’m not a lawyer, but I appreciate that the contractual law is complicated and yet the cancellation of the NIH contract has left my alarm bell,” she told ABC News in a statement.
Joints include the American Public Health Association; Ibis Reproductive Health; and combined auto workers, as well as three other researchers.
Both Nih and HHS told ABC News that they did not comment on ongoing litigation.
Minister of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., arrives before President Donald Trump talks during an event to announce new tariffs in the White House Rose Garden, April 2, 2025 in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Over the last few weeks, active research grants related to studies involving LGBTQ+ problems, gender identity and diversity, justice and inclusion (DEI) has been canceled in NIH as they claim that they do not serve the “President Donald Trump” administration’s “priorities”.
By the end of March, more than 900 grants were discontinued, an NIH official said with a knowledge of a matter that he wanted not to be named, told ABC News.
Termination comes after Trump has gone noise from executive orders, including promises to “protect women from the extremism of gender ideology”, which has led to new guidelines, such as HHS, which now recognizes only two sexes.
The administration has also issued several executive orders aimed at dismantling the initiatives of DEI.
In the previous letters of termination viewed by ABC News, they state that “sexual identity -based research programs are often unscientific, have little identifiable return on investment and do nothing to improve the health of many Americans. Research programs. “
The court case claims that the termination of the grants is “reckless and illegal purge for printing NIH -funded research that addresses topics and population that are disposed of.”
Charlton said she was worried about the 2025-close 1000-page project proposals discovered by the Inheritance Foundation during the 2024 campaign, designed to lead the next Conservative Administration, which seemed to be attacked by hers.
On the trail of the campaign, Trump tried to distance himself from the 2025 project, saying he knew nothing about the proposals.
Five of Charlton’s grants were discontinued, including a five -year grant, from which Charlton said she and her colleagues were in their fourth year, focused on documenting obstetric results for lesbians, gay and bisexual women, she said.
Another grant focused on how to improve the experience of lesbians, gay and bisexual personalities trying to form their families, she said.
The patient’s entrance to the National Health Institutes is shown in Bethesda, Md., October 16, 2014.
Gary Cameron/Reuters, file
Third was the study that wanted to understand how the laws set by the team, discriminated against, affect mental health among LGBTQ+ teens and potentially leading to depression and suicide, according to Charlton.
Charlton said that cancellation not only affects her ability to conduct research, but also the ability to maintain an open LGBTQ health center – based at the Harvard School of Public Health of Chan – from which she is the founder.
“My current NIH survey contracts are worth $ 15.9 million, which still has to spend $ 5.9 million to complete our research,” Charlton said. “Now I don’t have a salary and maybe I will have to close my recently launched LGBTQ Health Center for End Achievement, which was my career, which I finally met when we started less than a year ago.”
She continued: “These terminations of grants can end my academic career and I have already been forced to make really difficult decisions such as termination of staff, including the CEO of our recently appointed center.”
According to the lawsuit, Dr. Katie Edwards, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, had at least six grants terminated at about $ 11.9 million, including one who studied sexual abuse among men who fall under sexual minorities. She can no longer pay several of approximately 50 employees funded through grants for research, the lawsuit said.
Dr. Peter Luri, the president and CEO of the Non-Profan Center for Public Intensity, was a paid consultant and grant advisor assessing the impact of over-the-counter access to prevention before exposure to reduce HIV’s transmission, according to the court case. The institution for the grand Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare received a NIH termination letter at the end of March, the lawsuit said.
Meanwhile, N Nicole Mafis – PhD at the University of New Mexico School – who studies the relationship between the alcohol disorder and Alzheimer’s disease, applies for a mosaic “designed to help diversifying the profession,” according to the trial. Her proposal was withdrawn and her current funding ends in September 2025.
“Without additional funding that the Mosaic Award would provide, it will lose its job,” the lawsuit said.
Charlton said he hoped the case leads to a preliminary order and therefore stops additional termination of NIH.
“I believe these contracts are binding agreements and are constitutionally justified,” she said. “Less than 100 days of taking office and I am worried about the signs of increasing authoritarianism, and yet there is absolutely hope that the executive orders will not be able to rewrite the laws and I pray the courts to guarantee the truth, including through science, it is the only way to guarantee it.
