First they Came for our AHRQ Articles,then they Came for AHRQ: Scientific Suppression and Struggle in the United States

The authors of this commentary published two peer-reviewed online articles in 2020 and 2022 on the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) PSNet that were removed by the Trump administration because they violated White House policy on websites that “inculcate or promote gender ideology.” Ours were among thousands of articles and websites that had been removed or censored during the first month of the Trump administration. We describe the details of this censorship of our two articles one on suicide prevention, the other on endometriosis diagnosis challenges, neither of which was directly related to LGBT issues but used what are now banned terms. We further discuss the historical and political context of this removal, and the subsequent merger of AHRQ into a new Trump administration “Office of Strategy” that purports to target “the effectiveness of federal health programs” for improvement. In light of these censorship actions, large scale staff layoffs, and this reorganization, the fate of AHRQ's mission, current activities, and future project funding is currently uncertain. We offer strategic suggestions for resisting such attacks on academic freedom and restoring scientific integrity for patient safety, quality, and public health.