The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has provided only $579,499 of the $101 million Congress set aside this year for teen pregnancy prevention, leaving more than $100 million undistributed days before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30. The figures come from a letter signed by 92 members of Congress and sent to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sept. 25. According to the letter, that money went to a single grantee.
The funding supports the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, which Congress established in 2010. HHS cut off grants to dozens of nonprofits, universities, and health departments in June. In August, a federal judge blocked new abstinence-only requirements for the program but did not restore the canceled grants.
For families, the effect is local. Grantees that lost funding say they are laying off staff and scaling back classes, which means some teens will go without sex education this school year.
Evidence-Based Classes Serving Communities
The HHS Office of Population Affairs runs the program. It funds organizations to deliver proven teen pregnancy prevention programs and to develop and test new approaches. Its goals are to prevent teen pregnancy, prevent sexually transmitted infections among adolescents, and promote positive youth development.
The cuts have reached rural and urban communities alike. In Montana, Bridgercare had been delivering programs across 21 counties. "Ultimately, we can't sustain an education program at the scale that we were at, serving 21 counties across the state of Montana without funding," Executive Director Stephanie McDowell told NPR. She said the group will have to lay off staff.
Kristin Fairholm, executive director of EyesOpenIowa, described the disruption to families. "You work hard to recruit these families to come with their teens to do your programming, and then you're canceling them," she said.
Teen births in the U.S. have declined for decades. The teen birth rate fell 7% in 2025 to 11.7 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19, another record low, according to the CDC. In his August ruling, Judge Christopher Cooper wrote that the teen pregnancy rate has "plummeted since Congress began funding the grants in 2010," though no single program can be credited with a national trend.
From Grant Cuts to an August Ruling
HHS terminated 53 of 67 grants in June, worth about $68 million in total, citing "misalignment with agency priority," The Washington Sun, formerly NOTUS, reported. Most of the canceled awards were in the third year of five-year funding cycles. The department also issued new funding notices that promoted an abstinence-only approach.
On Aug. 19, Cooper, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, blocked those new conditions in a case brought by Hennepin County, Minnesota, and other plaintiffs. His opinion granting the preliminary injunction opens bluntly: "Millions of American teenagers have sex." He wrote that Congress intended the program to "employ a range of strategies, from encouragement of abstinence and delayed sexual activity to education about contraceptives."
Cooper described "body literacy," a concept the new notices required grantees to promote, as nebulous and concluded that "HHS's new TPP policy is likely arbitrary and capricious." He also noted that the notices cited public health studies that "appear either not to exist or not to support the propositions for which they are cited," which he called "a hallmark of AI-generated citations."
The ruling did not reinstate the terminated grants. Cooper declined to order them restored at that early stage of the case. On Sept. 21, he suspended the statutory lapse of the program's funds while the lawsuit continues and set a schedule for the two sides to seek a final ruling, with filings due through Dec. 21. NPR reported that a decision on reinstating the grants was expected soon, but no such ruling had been announced as of Sept. 27. HHS did not respond to NPR's request for comment.
The Fiscal-Year Deadline Explained
Federal agencies generally must obligate, or formally commit, one-year funds through grants or contracts by the end of the fiscal year. Unobligated one-year funds then expire and cannot be used for new grants, according to the Congressional Research Service. For five more fiscal years, expired money can be used only to pay obligations made while the funds were available. After that, the account is closed, and any remaining balance is canceled. For this program, however, Cooper's Sept. 21 order keeps the money from lapsing while the lawsuit continues, under a federal law that allows courts to pause the expiration of funds in dispute.
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., the letter's lead author, framed spending the money as a legal duty. "HHS is obligated to spend this money as directed by Congress," she told NPR. "This is a bipartisan program created by Congress with the clear intent of supporting evidence-based education models that help reduce teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other health risks for young people." Of the abstinence-only approach, she said, "This does not fulfill what Congress had appropriated and what its guidelines were."
The letter asks HHS to reinstate the terminated grants by Sept. 30. It says the court will prevent the funding from lapsing but argues that grantees need access to the money now to keep serving their communities. "Withholding these funds deprives teens across the U.S. of vital resources and threatens to unwind decades of progress made in reducing teen pregnancy," the lawmakers wrote.
Families Weighing Other Options
The teens most affected are those in communities where terminated grantees were the main source of sex education. Parents can ask their school district whether health classes are continuing and which curriculum is being used.
Other resources remain. Pediatricians and family physicians can talk with teens about puberty, contraception, and sexually transmitted infections, often with time set aside for private conversations. Title X family planning clinics and local health departments offer reproductive health services at low or no cost for many patients, and Medicaid covers family planning services for eligible teens.
McDowell said many parents she hears from are wary of comprehensive sex education, and she draws a line between the two roles. "So we teach facts; families teach values," she said.
After Sept. 30, attention will shift to whether the court orders the terminated grants restored, whether HHS responds to the lawmakers, and how Congress funds the program in the next budget cycle.
Key Questions Answered
How much teen pregnancy prevention money is unspent? More than $100 million of the $101 million Congress appropriated. As of the lawmakers' Sept. 25 letter, HHS had provided $579,499 to a single grantee.
What does the program pay for? It funds proven programs and new approaches to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, run by groups such as nonprofits, universities, and health departments.
What happens if the money is not spent by Sept. 30? Under federal budget rules, one-year funds not obligated by the end of the fiscal year generally expire and cannot be used for new grants. On Sept. 21, Judge Christopher Cooper suspended the lapse of these program funds while the lawsuit continues, but grantees still lack access to the money.
What did the court rule? On Aug. 19, Judge Christopher Cooper blocked HHS's new abstinence-only requirements but did not reinstate the grants terminated in June. As of Sept. 27, he had not ruled on reinstating them.
How many grants were cut? HHS terminated 53 of 67 grants, worth about $68 million, in June.
Where can teens still get reliable information? Pediatricians, family physicians, Title X clinics, and local health departments offer reproductive health guidance and services.
Published by Medicaldaily.com
