The Trump administration has terminated 53 federally funded teen pregnancy programs, stripping Planned Parenthood affiliates and dozens of other organizations of $67 million for teaching minors content the government calls age-inappropriate and sexually explicit.
The Department of Health and Human Services sent termination letters to more than 50 grantees last week, ending 53 of the 67 Biden-era awards under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. The affected organizations include Planned Parenthood California Central Coast, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the Wisconsin Department of Health, the Maryland Department of Health, the Baltimore City Health Department, and Hennepin County, Minnesota, among others. The cuts take effect immediately.
HHS's Office of Population Affairs, which administers the program, said the terminated curricula were "medically inaccurate," "age-inappropriate," and "sexually explicit," and that the content violated the founding statute of the program itself. Among the material cited: condom demonstrations for middle and high school students, guidance on obtaining abortions without telling parents, and instruction on gender identity concepts extending beyond male and female. The Love Notes curriculum, a program that uses romantic teen scenarios to discuss sexual behavior, was specifically flagged in at least one of the termination notifications reviewed by reporters.
HHS is not leaving the $67 million on the table. The agency confirmed it will redirect the reclaimed funds into two new funding streams totaling $71.7 million, with grant applications due July 23. The replacement programs are aimed at what the administration describes as "body literacy" and transparency, with an explicit emphasis on parental rights and oversight. In other words, Washington is not walking away from teen pregnancy prevention. It is redefining what that means.
For conservatives, that distinction matters. The TPPP was created by Congress with the intention of funding evidence-based programs, but critics on the right have argued for years that Planned Parenthood affiliates used that mandate as cover to funnel taxpayer money into ideology-driven sex education that conflicts with parental values and erodes the rights of families. The terminations represent the most concrete action the Trump administration has taken to sever the federal funding pipeline that flows, however indirectly, to the country's largest abortion provider.
Legal Battles Loom
Whether these cuts survive in court is a genuine open question. The history here is not encouraging for the administration. In October 2025, a federal judge vacated earlier HHS guidance restricting the same TPPP program, ruling that the department had made "zero effort" to show how its executive order directives could be reconciled with statutory requirements, and that the policy was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. Planned Parenthood has already demonstrated it will sue, and sue fast, when federal health funding moves against it. Bloomberg Law has flagged the program's future as uncertain, anticipating additional litigation.
Planned Parenthood filed suit in March 2025 over the first round of TPPP restrictions, and five affiliates obtained injunctive relief by that fall. The current round of terminations is broader and grounded in a different legal theory, the content of the curricula rather than alignment with executive orders, which HHS may have anticipated as the previous approach's vulnerability. But courts that have already shown willingness to intervene once will likely hear a new challenge quickly.
The administration's strongest ground is the statutory language. If the statute requires evidence-based programs and HHS can document that the terminated curricula failed that standard on medical accuracy, that is a more defensible position than the APA challenge that sank the earlier guidance. The new replacement grants, which must be in place by late July, are also part of the strategy: they give HHS something to point to as a constructive alternative, not simply a defunding.
Watch the court dockets closely. Planned Parenthood's legal team is fast, and a temporary restraining order before the replacement grants open for applications would freeze the entire reallocation in place. If the administration can get new grantees selected before a court steps in, the political and practical picture shifts considerably.
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