$68 Million Canceled from the Successful Teen Pregnancy Program

by Lilly Gioia

Fifteen years ago Congress created the Teen Pregnancy Program to reduce adolescent birth rates. Since then Teen Pregnancy Prevention has seen births decline by roughly 72%. Experts attribute the decline in fewer teens deciding to have sex earlier, to sex education and better access to contraception, especially for girls. In its 2025 budget the Trump administration promptly cut funding for this successful program. Last June they canceled 53 of 67 Teen Pregnancy Program grants worth about $68 million. The reason:
These 53 organizations did not align with new Health & Human Services priories which now emphasize counseling teenagers on ABSTINANCE ONLY and FERTILITY TRACKING, while affirming marriage and parenthood.

Grants to universities, community organizations, city and state health departments and Planned Parenthood in more than two dozen states were canceled two years before their expiration dates. A $1.2 million grant to Philadelphia’s Access Matters group, which is entirely federally funded, ended free sexual and reproductive health programs to more than 1,100 teens between the ages of 13 and 19.

In late August a federal judge paused the Health & Human Services abstinence overhaul, according to the PA Women’s Law Project. WLP Attorney Christine Castro said the funding cuts were already compromising the program and youth access generally. They are “depriving teens access to accurate information about contraception, sexually transmitted infections and health care referrals.” While the judge’s ruling temporarily blocks HHS from implementing the sweeping new abstinence only grant criteria, the injunction does not restore the nearly $70 million lost.

As detrimental as these cuts and others to Title X contraception funding provided for low-income Americans are, as Unitarian Universalists, we can be grateful that our church, long ago took seriously the sex education of our young people. In conjunction with the Church of Christ, the UU Our Whole Lives age-appropriate sex education program has been acknowledged by experts as one of the best in the country.

From personal experience as an adult religious education leader trained to present the Our Whole Lives program, I saw what a difference it made in the lives of the teenagers who participated. We are fortunate to belong to a faith community so dedicated to the religious education and well-being of our children, especially at a time when our present federal government is slashing education funding and children’s health care through Medicaid, to give tax breaks to corporations and the already wealthy.

I would suggest calling your Congressman about restoring funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, but the House of Representatives left Washington early. They won’t return until after the November election. It’s possible that this Republican-controlled Congress has broken the record for spending the least amount of time working and passing the fewest bills of any other Congress.