Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program

Established in 2010 with bipartisan support, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP) was created in recognition of the proven failures of abstinence-only education. TPPP mandates a wide range of comprehensive, age-appropriate educational programming covering unintended pregnancy, HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Programs that receive funding range from the Choctaw Nation’s work to combat teen pregnancy in Oklahoma to the Chicago Department of Public Health’s counseling and testing for STIs. Though the teen birth rate in the U.S. is still high compared to that of other industrialized nations, it has declined dramatically since the creation of the TPPP. Trump political appointees at HHS slowly dismantled the program by removing antidiscrimination protections and reversing LGBTQ inclusion, and, in July 2018, the Office of Adolescent Health (OAH) abruptly cut funding for the TPPP, shocking the health professionals and professors running the 81 grant projects nationwide. Several federal judges ruled against the agency’s plan to end five-year grants prematurely, however, and HHS has since been forced to resume grants—for the time being. In accordance with court orders, the Biden-Harris administration must reverse these harmful rules and restore the integrity of the TPPP.