The Department of Health and Human Services is withdrawing $67 million in grant funds allocated for teen pregnancy prevention, resulting in 53 of 67 federal grants being cut.
The money is to be allocated away from Biden-era curricula that the Trump administration viewed as “medically inaccurate,” “age-inappropriate” and “sexually explicit,” according to Daily Signal, where it was first reported on Tuesday.
The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program began in 2010 under the HHS Office of Population Affairs. Its purpose is to fund evidence-based grant programs across the country to organizations working to prevent teen pregnancy.
An HHS official told Bloomberg that reclaimed funds would be allocated into two new programs instead, which will fund $71.7 million in grants:
The two new programs are titled “Rigorous Impact Evaluation of Programs to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and Achieve Optimal Health” and "Replicating Effective Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Programs."
Applications for the grant closed on June 23.
Goals of the initiatives include “identify effective interventions focused on body literacy and ensuring transparency” and “provide adolescents with medically accurate, age-appropriate education and counseling that help them understand their bodies, clarify reproductive life goals, and make informed health decisions.”
Rachel Fey, interim co-CEO and vice president of policy and strategic partnerships at Power to Decide, also told Bloomberg the changes could be damaging.
“To attempt to remake it into a funding stream for conservative ideology not only flies in the face of the congressional appropriators and the purpose of the program but also denies young people the high-quality sexual health education they need and deserve,” she said.
Some of the cut programs, described by the Daily Signal, included the promotion of “pornography, contraception, transgenderism, abortion and more to middle and high school-aged audiences.”