The Trump administration announced they will back off a move to cut funding of organizations working to prevent teen pregnancies after courts ruled in favor of the grant recipients in five different lawsuits.
The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program is an Obama-era program providing five-year grants to 81 organizations nationwide working to reduce teen pregnancy by creating and evaluating sex education measures. Last year, The Trump administration announced they would cut funding two years early, at the three-year mark, after debuting new grant guidelines that emphasize abstinence. On Thursday, they peddled back on that position following a year of losses in court.
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All 81 organizations sued the administration in five lawsuits, winning each suit. Judges in Texas, Maryland, Washington state, and Washington, D.C. ruled that the administration’s funding cut was illegal.
"We will be funding the original grantees for the next year under the previous criteria," an administration spokesperson told The Hill. The administration plans to follow the courts’ rulings and reverse their previous decision to cut funding.
However, the administration will use their new criteria that emphasizes abstinence and erases mention of LGBTQ youth to award future grants.
Planned Parenthood has filed suit to fight the administration’s new guidelines. In a press release announcing the lawsuit, Planned Parenthood decried the new criteria, saying, “Abstinence-only programs are not only unpopular, but they are also the same harmful programs that often blame survivors for their own sexual assaults, peddle fear, and ignore the needs of LGBTQ teens.”
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