Overview
- HHS under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this July revised Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program rules to require abstinence as the primary prevention message and to emphasize fertility counseling and the value of marriage.
- Three days after the new guidance was published this summer many existing awardees received termination letters that said funding was “terminated effective immediately,” jeopardizing millions in federal support.
- Several former grantees and reproductive-health groups have sued HHS and asked courts to block the cancellations and the new application criteria on the grounds that the changes are ideologically driven and conflict with the statute.
- The abrupt terminations forced programs to pause services, cut staff and halt research—Fact Forward laid off half its staff and multiple groups report canceled trainings and interrupted youth programs.
- Major medical societies have criticized the shift and the new rules echo Project 2025 and recent Title X guidance by promoting natural family planning and restorative reproductive medicine instead of contraceptive-focused, evidence-based prevention.