BREAKING: Trump ENDS FUNDING For Teen Pregnancy Prevention
Wisconsin health programs that help teenagers avoid unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections just lost more than a million dollars in federal funding, with almost no warning. The money isn’t gone because Congress cut it. It disappeared because the Trump administration decided to rewrite what the program is allowed to fund.
The Trump administration has canceled dozens of federal grants totaling roughly $68 million under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. And the story is worse than you think.
What Happened
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services notified funding recipients on a Saturday that the federal government had terminated a $1.2 million annual Teen Pregnancy Prevention grant, according to an email obtained by Wisconsin Public Radio. DHS was told the day before that the grant was canceled effective immediately.
This was a five-year grant, expected to run until 2028. It supported programs specifically designed to reduce unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections among adolescents and young adults. The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Where the Money Is Actually Going
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services canceled millions of dollars in existing Teen Pregnancy Prevention awards in order to fund two new grant programs. According to the federal grants website, the new funding opportunities focus on “body literacy” education and “reproductive goals counseling,” with heavy emphasis on “protection of parental rights” and “transparency for parents and guardians.”
Those are not scientific or clinical terms — instead, they are political ones.
Who Is Losing Funding
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee was listed as a recipient of a five-year grant worth $1.2 million annually. A representative for the organization declined to comment, saying they are still trying to understand what the cuts mean for their programming.
Embolden Wisconsin, a nonprofit that received $130,000 annually through the DHS award, ran its Providers And Teens Communicating for Health program, known as PATCH. That funding accounted for a quarter of the program’s total budget. PATCH teaches teens how to navigate the healthcare system and trains medical providers on how to communicate effectively with adolescent patients.
Sara Finger, executive director of Embolden Wisconsin, said the new grant requirements are “completely in contradiction to the spirit of PATCH.” She was direct about what she believes is happening. “This program has really been shifted in a way that really undermines public health and evidence-based care for adolescents in this country,” she said, adding that the language in the new grant postings is not scientifically based.
This Fits a Broader Pattern
Finger connected the funding change to a wider trend, noting that the reallocation follows the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and that any organization applying for the new grants will be required to certify compliance with the administration’s anti-DEI policies.
State Health Officer Paula Tran said in the email to affected organizations that the department is “assessing all avenues possible to ensure the federal government is following all requirements in this funding agreement.”
Organizations Fear This Is Just the Beginning
Finger says this cancellation may only be the first of several funding losses her organization and others like it will face.
Embolden Wisconsin has two additional federally funded grants through DHS coming up for renewal in September. Finger estimates that combined, those grants represent another quarter to a third of her organization’s total funding. She said she is very concerned that the same reasoning used to cancel this grant will be applied to those as well, calling this cancellation possibly “just the tip of the iceberg.”
The Bottom Line
A program built on decades of public health research, designed specifically to reduce teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted infections, just lost federal funding in Wisconsin with almost no notice. The replacement programs the administration is funding instead emphasize parental rights language over evidence-based health education, and require grant recipients to certify they’ve abandoned diversity and inclusion commitments.
The organizations actually working with teenagers on the ground call the new approach unscientific. The families and clinics that relied on this funding now have to find another way to do the work, or stop doing it altogether.
Bottom line: Trump and his cronies in the White House are putting families and teens at risk with their impulsive funding cuts.