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NIH funds Planned Parenthood researcher $495k for study about 'oppression,' abortion 'access'

By Calvin FreiburgerMarch 14, 2025 at 3:58 PM
NIH funds Planned Parenthood researcher $495k for study about 'oppression,' abortion 'access'
Shutterstock | BETHESDA, MD / USA - JUNE 30, 2018: The National Institutes of Health is the nation’s medical research agency and the largest biomedical research agency in the world.

A Harvard researcher who also works for Planned Parenthood is getting $495,307 from the NIH to study how ‘power and oppression’ relates to abortion ‘access.’

(LifeSiteNews) -- A Harvard researcher who also works for Planned Parenthood is currently receiving a $495,307 federal grant to study the relationship between “oppression” and abortion “access,” in the latest case of “woke” government spending currently under the microscope.

The College Fix reports that the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is currently funding a study concerning the “societal dynamics of power and oppression” that negatively impact so-called “reproductive health equity” among “individuals who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color …  those with disabilities and chronic disease, individuals who are transgender or gender-nonconforming … and people of lower socioeconomic status.”

The author is Harvard professor Elizabeth Janiak, who is also director of social science research for Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, as well as head of the Lab for Contraception & Abortion Research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The study is active until August 2026, unless canceled before then.

NIH officials declined the Fix’s requests to answer how often the agency subsidizes projects relying on a self-described “intersectional framework” (intersectionality is the contention that the interests of the political Left’s various identity-based factions are all interdependent, including abortion-on-demand, the LGBT agenda, wealth redistribution, criminal justice “reform,” illegal immigration, and anti-Western sentiment).

“Indirect costs of $167,913 represent an overhead of approximately 34%. This is well in excess of the Trump Administration’s recent standard indirect cost rate on all grants of 15%,” noted Dr. Kurt Miceli of the watchdog group Do No Harm. “Resources are not unlimited, particularly in an age of budget deficits. The NIH with its taxpayer dollars should focus on funding basic biomedical research that will improve the health of all people rather than funding research grounded in a political ideology.”

Many far-left uses of taxpayer dollars are currently under review by the Trump administration, including pro-abortion and pro-censorship activity through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda” through the National Science Foundation, and billions to left-wing “green energy” nonprofits through the Environmental Protection Agency.

The new U.S. Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) website currently claims credit for a total estimated savings of $115 billion, although there are questions if those savings will truly materialize unless codified by Congress. Currently they threaten to be canceled out by a congressional budget plan that is estimated to add $3.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.

U.S. & Politics
March 14, 2025 at 3:58 PM
CF

Calvin Freiburger

Calvin Freiburger is a Wisconsin-based conservative writer and 2011 graduate of Hillsdale College. His commentary and analysis have been featured on NewsReal Blog, Live Action, and various other conservative websites. Before joining LifeSiteNews, he spent two years in Washington, DC, working to build support for the Life at Conception Act with the National Pro-Life Alliance, then worked a year and a half as assistant editor of TheFederalistPapers.org. You can follow him on Twitter @CalFreiburger, and check out his Substack: calvinfreiburger.substack.com.
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  • A Harvard researcher who also works for Planned Parenthood is getting $495,307 from the NIH to study how ‘power and oppression’ relates to abortion ‘access.’

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