The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program had one job — and it was working.
Apparently, that was the problem.
Congress created the program in 2010 and has renewed it on a bipartisan basis for 16 straight years — including in this year’s budget.
Over that time, teen births fell 72%.
So HHS just pulled $67 million out of it, killing most of its grants, and opened a new $63 million round with new rules.
Those rules tell grantees to teach abstinence as the only guaranteed method. To affirm marriage and parenthood as “meaningful components of adult life.” To teach fertility awareness — tracking cervical mucus and body temperature. Methods normally used by couples trying to get pregnant.
The new criteria barely mention STIs. Contraception? Discouraged.
Decades of studies show abstinence-only education doesn’t reduce teen pregnancy. It raises it.
And the Secretary whose HHS wrote these rules has a documented habit of musing about teenage boys’ sperm counts — claims with no scientific evidence behind them.
Just. Plain. Weird.
They ran this exact play in 2017.
Federal courts ruled it unlawful.
This time, health groups have already sued.
To be fair: the administration calls this “body literacy” and “optimal health,” part of an approach known as restorative reproductive medicine.
They say they’re not promoting teen pregnancy — just teaching teenagers to track their fertility, plan their “reproductive goals,” skip the contraception, and embrace parenthood as a life goal.
Hey — we’re just reading their grant rules out loud.
