79 House Democrats demand HHS explain cancellation of teen pregnancy prevention grants, seek reinstatement

Democrats in both chambers of Congress are pressing the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services to reinstate cancelled Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) grants, according to a letter sent to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday. The request follows HHS’s termination of about $68 million in TPP awards announced last week, a change the lawmakers said could disrupt programs congressionally intended to support youth and improve sexual health outcomes.

In the House, 79 Democrats led by members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus sent the letter to Kennedy, asking for a detailed explanation of why the grants were cancelled and what the agency is doing with the money it is no longer spending. The lawmakers also demanded that HHS reinstate the funding rather than redirect it, contending that the termination process threatened the ability of organizations to deliver services tied to the original congressional intent.

The Hill reported that HHS said the cancelled grants were no longer aligned with the administration’s priorities. According to the report, most of the awards were terminated because HHS stated they “normalized or promoted sexual activity for minors,” an evaluation the lawmakers challenged in their letter’s framing of the TPP program’s purpose.

The House Democrats’ letter argued that shifting funding away from the TPP program would jeopardize access to what they described as “high-quality health education, support, and resources” Congress intended to fund. The lawmakers further characterized the cancellations as abrupt and arbitrary disruptions, stating that they could undermine the program’s ability to serve its congressionally intended mission of providing young people knowledge and tools related to sexual risk reduction and preventing unintended teen pregnancy.

An HHS official told The Hill that reclaimed funds would be directed toward two new grant opportunities, but those awards would not be available until 2027. The letter, according to the report, pressed Kennedy to clarify the timing and substance of that redirection and to explain how the administration’s plan would preserve or replace services supported by the now-cancelled grants.

TPP is administered through HHS’s Office of Population Affairs and is designed to fund organizations that provide evidence-based programming aimed at reducing sexual risk behavior and related outcomes, including sexually transmitted infections and unintended teen pregnancy, The Hill reported. The broader policy context is that HHS has continued to issue public health and administrative changes across the 2025 to 2026 term, according to KFF’s tracking of major HHS actions.

The lawmakers’ immediate next step is seeking a response from HHS to the letter’s questions about legal and programmatic justification, use of funds, and whether the cancelled awards will be restored. If HHS proceeds with redirecting the funding into new grant opportunities, organizations currently operating TPP-linked services may face uncertainty about continuity until the later 2027 competition.

KFF’s tracking resource does not specifically document the TPP cancellation, but it provides a contemporaneous index of HHS actions during the term that includes how the administration has shifted certain public health grant and policy approaches. Still, the precise scope of the TPP changes, including the full list of affected awards and the administrative basis for termination, has not been detailed in the reporting cited for this story, and the letter’s requests indicate lawmakers intend to obtain more information directly from the agency.