Key facts
- Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, Hennepin County, and King County sued the Trump administration over changes to the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.
- The lawsuit alleges HHS forced grantees to use "ideologically-driven, medically inaccurate information" and curricula that exclusively promote abstinence before marriage.
- Grantees reported being shocked by funding cuts, stating they had revised their sex education lessons to comply with administration directives.
- King County's public health department lost $1 million annually for a program focused on contraception education for teenage boys.
- Some defunded programs utilized the "Love Notes" lesson plan, including an abstinence-only version that omitted contraceptive instruction.
The Trump administration's overhaul of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, which included a shift towards abstinence-only curricula, has prompted a lawsuit from health organizations and local governments. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, Hennepin County, Minnesota, and King County, Washington, are suing the administration, alleging that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) forced grantees to use "non-evidence-based curricula that exclusively promote abstinence-only before marriage" and "ideologically-driven, medically inaccurate information."
Grantees who had their funding terminated expressed shock, stating they had revised their sex education lessons to comply with the administration's executive orders barring federal funding for "gender ideology" or "diversity, equity and inclusion." Despite these changes, HHS issued termination letters citing that programs were not "aligned with agency priorities," though the specific reasons varied.
For instance, King County's public health department, which received $1 million annually to study the effectiveness of contraception education for teenage boys in child welfare and criminal justice systems, had its funding cut. The termination letter cited insufficient information regarding the health risks of birth control.
Several grantees, including Ginger Mullaney, CEO of Healthy Futures of Texas, told POLITICO that HHS had selectively used information from their lessons out of context. Healthy Futures of Texas had educated over 58,000 young people across Texas in the past three years. Some of the defunded programs utilized a lesson plan called "Love Notes," developed by The Dibble Institute, with some opting for an abstinence-only version that focused on healthy relationships without including contraceptive or family planning instruction.