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The National Institutes of Health awarded a doctoral student who goes by “they/them” pronouns a five-figure grant to study “gender minority birthing people.”
Pond Ezra, a University of Maryland School of Public Health doctoral student studying Family Science, received $35,832 from the taxpayer-funded NIH in February. Ezra’s project, which the grant will fund is titled “Longitudinal Mixed Methods Analysis of Risk and Protective Factors Influencing Psychological Distress in Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) Birthing People.”
The project’s abstract on the NIH’s website claims that SGM women have higher disparities in pregnancy and face mental health problems. It even alleges that this is perpetuated by “unaffirming and inappropriate care” that leads to stress and delays in healthcare.
The NIH, the University of Maryland and Ezra each did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
“The main objective of Mx. Ezra’s project is to elucidate how social support and medical care contribute to the mental health trajectories of SGM birthing people throughout the perinatal period,” the abstract read.”
Independent Women’s Forum, a center-right policy organization, characterized the grant as benefitting an “ideological activism” project.
“For too long, federal money has been invested, not in the kind of research for maternal health or cancer that everyone would support,” Inez Stepman, Independent Women Senior Policy and Legal Analyst told the Daily Caller News Foundation.”But in ideological activism projects that at best waste taxpayer funds and at worst push harmful lies.”
“The Trump administration has done a wonderful job actually tracing where our dollars are going and ensuring that they’re used for projects that Congress actually appropriated them for, and that the American people actually support,” Stepman added.
In addition to using the prefix “Mx.,” Ezra prefers “they/them” pronouns. Ezra takes a research focus on transgender parenting, specifically how “seahorse dads” — referring to pregnant women who identify as transgender men — “navigate parenting roles after birth,” according to the student’s biography on the University of Maryland School of Public Health’s website.
Ezra works in the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity lab, led by Dr. Jessica Fish, per the website. In this lab, Ezra has participated in “multiple projects that investigate socialization messages communicated among heterosexual parents and sexual minority youth,” per the University’s website.
Ronna Popkin, the program official on the project, referred The College Fix to the NIH’s media office when the publication asked what the taxpayer-funded agency, currently under the Trump administration, plans to do with Ezra’s findings. The press team did not respond to the College Fix’s multiple attempts for comment, the outlet reported.
A part of NIH’s mission is to enhance health and to reduce illness and disability, read their website. In regards to this specific project’s public health relevance, the training developed through this research will aid in “positioning the PI as an emerging expert on SGM reproductive health equity.”
“To accomplish the objective and aims of their proposed research plan, Mx. Ezra will seek out additional training to increase their conceptual, methodological, and dissemination skillsets which will augment their core training in Family Science,” the abstract on the NIH’s website continued. “Their training plan combines formal coursework in family and maternal and child health, statistics, one-on-one mentoring, conference presentations, and publishing research to prepare them for a career as an independent researcher.”
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