HHS cuts teen pregnancy prevention grants across more than 20 states

HHS canceled 53 of 67 Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grants, ending about $66 million to $68 million in awards that still had roughly two years left to run. The cuts reached grantees in more than two dozen states and hit a mix of public health departments, universities, community organizations, Planned Parenthood affiliates and Bethany Christian Services affiliates.

The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program sits in HHS’s Office of Population Affairs and is built around evidence-based grants for preventing teen pregnancy, reducing sexually transmitted infections among adolescents and promoting positive youth development. HHS canceled the projects because they did not align with agency priorities, and some termination notices raised concerns about “normalizing sexual activity for minors.”

AccessMatters in Philadelphia had its $1.2 million award terminated effective the same day, cutting into an adolescent health initiative that served more than 1,100 teens ages 13 to 19. Healthy Futures of Texas revised 11 programs to comply with executive-order requirements, won its grant back after those changes, and then saw its $2 million annual award canceled anyway. Thirteen employees were set to lose their jobs and services would likely shrink.

Wisconsin health officials said more than a dozen organizations in the state were affected and had expected to share in almost $1 million per year over the next two years. That money had been earmarked for prevention work that depends on steady outreach, curriculum planning and staff time, not one-time interventions.

The cancellations came even after Congress appropriated $101 million for fiscal year 2026 for medically accurate and age-appropriate teen pregnancy prevention programs. The administration had already signaled opposition in its budget request.

Trump-era officials previously tried to eliminate the program in 2017 and later attempted to force grantees into conflicting requirements in 2025, efforts that were blocked. Senators Patty Murray and Tammy Baldwin pressed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to restore the grants. CDC data showed the teen birth rate fell 7% in 2025, to 11.7 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19, another record low.