Trump administration defunds autism research in DEI and 'gender ideology' purge
Baku, May 17, AZERTAC
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has vowed to address rising U.S. autism rates as a top health priority for the Trump administration, according to Reuters.
Last month, he pledged $50 million to help identify environmental causes of autism, to be issued as grants by the National Institutes of Health, and has announced plans to create a national “autism registry.”
Yet during the first four months of 2025, the NIH has reduced funding for autism-related research by an estimated $31 million to $116 million from $147 million in the same period in 2024, according to a Reuters analysis of NIH data. The spending is 26% lower than the prior four-year average for that period, the analysis found.
In some cases, the NIH has canceled projects because they involved diverse populations, studied differences in gender or took place at research universities currently under scrutiny by the Trump Administration. For others, funding for autism projects has simply halted or money for new projects has not been approved.
Among the eliminated or defunded annual grant programs identified by Reuters:
- A $509,000 grant studying the genetic factors that impact mental health and gender diversity in 10,000 autistic and non-autistic people
- A $211,000 grant to develop interventions to improve the mental health of autistic adults
A $548,000 grant exploring the autism risk among children of women exposed to childhood abuse
Reuters analyzed nearly 300,000 projects funded by the NIH since 2021 to identify autism research for its review. The agency has funded about 4,600 autism-related projects since 2021, with an annual average of $525 million over the past four years.
Reuters calculated its funding estimates for autism-related research by counting NIH grants awarded between 2021 and 2025 for projects with the terms “autism” or “autistic” in the titles or abstracts. Seven autism researchers and one former NIH employee said the analysis provides a fair assessment of funding trends.
Among the autism-related grants reviewed by Reuters, five totalling more than $10 million were listed as “Terminated” by “Department Authority” on the NIH’s website. The grants, which described research into “sexual and gender minority autistic adults,” auditory hearing, and genetic risks among people with autism, were all canceled within two weeks of each other in March.
The NIH’s site did not provide a reason for the terminations. The Reuters analysis could not determine the reason for the reduction in funding, whether an existing project was halted pending review or if money for a new grant was being held back.
More autism research could also be impacted by the Trump administration’s withholding of federal funding from research universities, such as Harvard University or Columbia University’s Autism Center for Excellence, which receives funding from the NIH.
Taken together, autism researchers fear funding cuts will delay progress in discovering the possible causes and best treatments for autism.
“A cut of that magnitude would devastate efforts to understand autism and develop novel therapies aimed at improving the lives of individuals on the spectrum,” said Dr. Josh Gordon, former director of the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health and former chair of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said some programs identified by Reuters were canceled due to President Trump’s executive orders on diversity, equity, and inclusion or for promoting “gender ideology.”
The spokesperson denied that the Trump administration had “reduced its overall commitment to autism research.”
“HHS remains fully committed to advancing our understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorder, a complex and heterogeneous condition now estimated to affect 1 in 31 children, according to the CDC’s 2025 data,” the spokesman said in a statement.
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