In late June, over 50 grant recipients of the US’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program received notice that their funding, used to implement sexual health education initiatives, was being terminated because their programmes didn’t align with the Trump administration’s values. This came just days after the US Department of Health and Human Services released new notices of funding opportunities and laid out guidelines for new applications.12 The new guidelines emphasise abstinence-only education, “parental rights” (a conservative movement that uses the concept as a pretext for restricting young people’s autonomy), and themes of fertility tracking and hormone production favoured by the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.34A federal judge temporarily blocked the new guidelines on 19 August, but terminated funding will not be restored to grant recipients. Although this ruling prevents the new guidelines from being implemented while litigation is ongoing, these actions are yet another threat to evidence based sexual and reproductive…
