Erica Jimenez is claiming racial discrimination after being denied access to a California Black infant program.
A woman described in reports as white and or Latina was denied acceptance into a Black infant health program in Pasadena, California, is suing the program on the grounds of racial discrimination. Yes, you read that correctly.
Erica Jimenez, 33, filed a federal class action lawsuit on Thursday, April 2, in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against the Pasadena Public Health Department and its Director of Public Health, Manuel Carmona, over her rejection from its Black Infant Health Program.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the California Department of Public Health are also named as defendants.
Speaking to Pasadena Now, Pasadena Chief Communications Officer Lisa Derderian said, “We have been served and are reviewing the lawsuit.”
According to her attorneys at the Pacific Legal Foundation, Jimenez alleges that weeks before her due date, she was informed she was not eligible for the program because she did not meet the racial requirement. She gave birth to her first child, a baby boy, in mid-March.
In the lawsuit, she further alleges that the Black Infant Health (BIH) program, which bases enrollment on race and the age of the infant, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“California’s program treats race as a stand-in for need — assuming that only mothers of one race deserve or require the help this program offers,” Andrew Quinio, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a release. “Drawing a line around a public benefit program and saying only certain races may enter is precisely the kind of discrimination the Equal Protection Clause forbids.”
However, that isn’t exactly the case here. The Black Infant Health program, which serves women who are Black (or carrying a future Black child) and pregnant or up to six months postpartum, was established in 1989 to address the disproportionately high rate of infant mortality among Black families, and more than 30 years later, as Black infants continue to have the highest rates of mortality, low birth weight, and prematurity of any group in this country, it remains as necessary as ever.
“The BIH Program focuses exclusively on empowering Black/African American women by connecting them with the vital care and support needed to promote healthy behaviors during pregnancy and continuing after her baby is born,” reads the program’s official site.
Presently, Black babies have a mortality rate of 10.93 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The odds of survival and long-term health for Black infants can be shaped by systemic barriers that can begin in the womb, including unequal access to quality prenatal care, higher rates of being dismissed or undertreated by medical providers, chronic stress tied to racism, and environmental conditions that impact maternal health. Programs like this are designed to close those gaps and give Black infants equal footing, not a leg up.
The program is funded in part through federal maternal and child health funding, and for the 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 fiscal years, the California Department of Public Health allocated more than $5.5 million to Los Angeles County for related services, including roughly $902,405 in federal Title V Maternal and Child Health block grant funds, according to the complaint.
In the release from Jimenez’s attorneys, they noted that the program operates with no income requirement, but research has consistently shown that income alone does not account for the disparities in outcomes for Black mothers and infants. Systemic racism does.
The lawsuit asks the court to end the program’s racial eligibility requirements and open enrollment to all mothers in need.
“A victory would ensure that California’s maternal support resources are distributed based on need — not race,” they wrote.
What the suit fails to address is that this program exists to ensure the very thing they claim it does not, which is why this lawsuit is hard to ignore as an isolated incident. Since Donald Trump took office again in 2025 and began dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across the federal government, there has been a ripple effect, with DEI rolled back across corporations, schools, and public institutions, and has even included white Americans filing lawsuits to either end or gain access to programs originally designed to support marginalized communities, including Black Americans.
This has included the U.S. Department of Education moving to roll back equity-focused guidance and programs that supported Black students and the cancellation of a $300 million federal grant program specifically for Black farmers and other underserved producers. Even before 2025, legal attacks a year prior forced the Fearless Fund to end its $20,000 grant program for Black women entrepreneurs, after a lawsuit filed in August 2023 led to the program being blocked in June 2024 and shut down in September 2024. Student organizations and scholarships centered on Black identity have also increasingly come under attack in this current new reality.
