IWPR Statement on HHS Moving $12 Million from the Office of Minority Health to Fund Secretary Kennedy’s Security, as Reported by Wall Street Journal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 23, 2026

The following is a statement from Dr. Jamila K. Taylor, president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, on the recent report in The Wall Street Journal that the Department of Health and Human Services shifted $12 million from the Office of Minority Health to help cover the increasing costs of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s security.

Once again, Secretary Kennedy and the Trump administration have shown where their true priorities lie—and it’s not in advancing the health and well-being of families, or in saving the lives of thousands of mothers and babies.

For four decades, the Office of Minority Health has provided leadership and crucial resources for programs and services aimed at supporting the families and communities most affected by health disparities, including addressing the maternal health crisis among Black and Indigenous women. That work, begun under President Reagan, is not yet done: Black women are still three times as likely, and Indigenous women twice as likely, to die from pregnancy-related causes as White women, with devastating consequences for families and entire communities.

But instead of treating this as the emergency it is, the Trump administration has used its racist anti-DEI sledgehammer to decimate the institutions working to improve health outcomes for communities of color, and has overseen a tax bill that cut critical programs to fund giveaways to the rich. The recent revelations in The Wall Street Journal, that HHS was moving $12 million from the Office of Minority Health to cover Kennedy’s security costs, add to this shameful trend.

The United States already has the highest maternal mortality rate among wealthy nations, and we cannot afford to let this crisis get worse for the sake of this administration’s vanity and its failure to serve the nation’s families. Personal bodyguards and a misplaced focus on perceived “masculinity” are not the evidence-informed solutions that will increase the community-based birth workforce and the number of health care providers. What will help families is investment in expanding women’s access to crucial care and services, prioritizing the needs of women and families, and addressing the root drivers of maternal mortality.