HHS canceled Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grants, redirected $67M to 'parental rights' and 'body literacy' competitions

On June 24, 2026, the Department of Health and Human Services canceled most active grants under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, a congressionally funded initiative that has supported evidence-based adolescent pregnancy prevention since 2010. HHS simultaneously published two new notices of funding opportunity totaling $71.7 million under the same appropriation — but the new competitions require content consistent with "parental rights" and "body literacy" frameworks and explicitly bar programs that "promote or advance gender ideology." An HHS official confirmed to Bloomberg Law that the reclaimed TPPP funds would be redirected to these reframed competitions.

The TPPP was established by Congress and has been continuously funded to support programs with demonstrated evidence of reducing unintended adolescent pregnancy. HHS's Office of Population Affairs, which administers the program, had previously issued guidance in 2025 requiring existing grantees to strip gender-identity content from their programs. Three Planned Parenthood affiliates sued, and a federal judge vacated that guidance. By terminating existing grantee awards mid-cycle and recompeting the funds under ideological requirements, HHS achieved the same content restrictions without the guidance instrument the court had vacated.

Critics noted that the new competitions effectively nullify the congressionally established program's evidence-based mandate by attaching ideological screening conditions to a re-award of the same appropriated funds. This grant-termination-and-recompete pattern — applied across multiple HHS programs beginning in 2025 — allows the executive to reshape congressional program purposes without formal rulemaking or congressional authorization.