Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Sexual Risk Avoidance Programs
(Teen Pregnancy Prevention)
Department of Health and Human ServicesTeens in targeted prevention programs
Summary
The Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program is a federal grant program run by HHS's Office of Population Affairs that funds community organizations, schools, and health providers to deliver evidence-based sex education and pregnancy-prevention curricula for adolescents ages 10-24. The FY2027 budget proposes eliminating the program entirely, cutting its full $100 million in funding (a 100% cut), and replacing it with abstinence-focused Sexual Risk Avoidance Education grants.
Who Is Affected
In recent years TPP has funded around 80 grantee organizations nationwide, serving well over 200,000 youth annually, including school districts, community health centers, and youth-serving nonprofits (in FY2017, 81 grantees served 213,420 youth ages 10-19). The administration already moved partway toward this elimination in 2026 by canceling 53 of 67 active TPP grants worth $67 million; the FY2027 proposal would end the remaining evidence-based grants entirely.
What this cut would actually mean
Without this funding, dozens of local organizations that run curricula covering contraception, healthy relationships, and STI prevention would have to shut down or shift entirely to abstinence-only messaging funded through the new Sexual Risk Avoidance Education stream. Several of the discontinued TPP models were selected because federal reviews found evidence they reduced teen pregnancy rates, so ending them removes a tool that has been credited with helping drive the decades-long decline in U.S. teen birth rates, particularly in lower-income and rural communities that relied on these grants.
Sources
- Funding for prevention of teen pregnancy cut by Trump's HHS — NPR reporting on the Trump administration's cancellation of teen pregnancy prevention grants and the budget proposal to eliminate the program.
- Federal health agency cancels most of its teen pregnancy prevention grants — Stateline article detailing that the program was targeted in prior budget requests and describing the shift toward sexual risk avoidance funding.
- Trump administration cancels millions of dollars in teen pregnancy prevention grants — The Hill's coverage of HHS terminating dozens of TPP grants, citing content concerns as justification.
- About the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program — HHS Office of Population Affairs' official description of who the TPP program serves and how it operates.
- Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Program - Federal Grants Wire — Program accomplishment data showing 81 grantees served 213,420 youth ages 10-19 in FY2017.
- Adolescent Pregnancy: Federal Prevention Programs (CRS Report R45183) — Congressional Research Service overview of the four federal adolescent pregnancy prevention programs, including TPP, and how they differ.
Administration's Stated Rationale
“Program replaced with abstinence-focused education; evidence-based prevention programs discontinued.”