Power to Decide Condemns TPP Termination

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Today, 53 grantees of the evidence-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program received termination notices from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for their grants. This follows last year's attempt to force grantees to comply with guidelines that conflicted with program requirements and that were struck down in federal court. It also follows the first Trump Administration's attempted defunding of all TPP Program grantees in 2017, a move that was likewise struck down by the courts.

The TPP Program was established in 2010 and is recognized as a pioneering example of tiered, evidence-based policymaking. Grantees provide medically accurate, age-appropriate sexual health education curricula proven through rigorous evaluation to change behavior. The program also funds the evaluation of promising new approaches to continually expand the menu of programs communities can use to deliver evidence-based sexual health education to young people.

In response, Power to Decide Interim Co-CEO, Rachel Fey, released the following statement:

"There is a long history of the Trump Administration attempting to destroy the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. To date, they have failed, which has been to the benefit of evidence-based policymaking and the young people served by this program. Now they are at it again, reaching into the pockets of communities around the country and stripping away a source of high-quality, evidence-based sexual health education-and in doing so, harming the pipeline for growing our knowledge about what programs work best to help young people.

"Attempting to remake the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program into a funding stream for conservative ideology not only flies in the face of the congressional appropriators who have funded this evidence-based program every year since FY 2010, but also denies young people the high-quality sexual health education they need and deserve."

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Power to Decide is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to advance sexual and reproductive well-being for all by providing trusted information, expanding access to quality services, and catalyzing culture change.