It would modernize FDA regulations, raise awareness of research that includes pregnant and lactating women, and encourage high-quality priority research projects to be conducted at the NIH— to help ensure moms and babies stay safe and healthy.
Encourage high-quality priority research projects at the NIH on how medications affect pregnant and lactating women and their infants.
Occurrences
Evidence
The caucus posted that, in FY25, more than $40 million was awarded through the NIH IMPROVE Initiative and that more than $142 million has been awarded through the initiative to date. The update says this NIH funding reflected grant requests from the caucus.
Assessments
The available record shows meaningful movement in the promised policy area: NIH maternal-health research funding expanded through the IMPROVE Initiative, and caucus reporting says those grants reflected requests from the Black Maternal Health Caucus. But that does not establish the narrower promised outcome of a delivered NIH priority specifically focused on how medications affect pregnant and lactating women and their infants, nor does it show a clearly Castor-led enactment of that exact research agenda. Using federal candidate-credit standards, this supports partial credit for helping advance related NIH research funding, but not full delivery of the specific medication-research promise.