The United States Department of Health and Human Services has clarified that federal funds for its Teen Pregnancy Prevention program cannot be used to promote radical gender ideology.
HHS’ Office of Population Affairs offers the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program as a national grant initiative to fund nonprofits, hospitals, and local jurisdictions working to prevent teen pregnancy across the country.
Among its current recipients are the City of Austin, the Baltimore City Health Department, Delta Health Alliance, Texas A&M’s Health Science Center, and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Some of the current recipients, like the City of Austin, have issued guidelines from their own Human Resources Departments defining gender as “a person’s internal, deeply held sense of their gender.”
The release of Program Policy Notice 2025-01 by HHS attempts to clarify both that TPP grant funds cannot support such guidelines and President Donald Trump’s executive orders on gender ideology.
Notably, Trump’s directive that the U.S. officially recognizes two sexes, Executive Order 14168 of January 20, must be followed by the OPA when issuing TPP program funds.
The department says its new policy “safeguards the rights of parents to protect their children from content that undermines their religious beliefs,” in line with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Mahmoud v. Taylor.
“HHS is committed to ensuring a flourishing and healthy American youth, including through reducing teen pregnancy,” stated Dr. Dorothy Fink, the acting assistant secretary for health.
“Prioritizing parental involvement in the education of children on the most sensitive topics creates a healthy environment for children to engage with medically accurate and age-appropriate material,” she added.
Brady Gray, president of Texas Family Project, told Texas Scorecard that the HHS’ policy clarification “affirms Christian convictions about parental authority and God’s design for humanity.”
It also “rejects cultural currents that elevate ideology over biblical truth and calls believers to defend both truth and family,” stated Gray.
Kimberlyn Schwartz, director of media and communication at Texas Right to Life, said that the TPP program “is meant to equip teens with tools to make healthy and responsible choices—not to confuse them with ideologically driven narratives that deny the reality of sex and the dignity of the human person.”
“As a pro-life Christian ministry, Texas Right to Life believes that every child is created by God with purpose and value. Programs funded by taxpayer dollars must reflect this truth and serve the best interests of youth and families,” stated Schwartz.
“We urge the federal government to not only undo the woke agenda of previous administrations, like this action by HHS, but also to make Pro-Life steps forward in stopping mail-order abortion pills and enacting national protections for preborn babies,” she added.
The State of Texas has followed Trump’s lead in recent years in clamping down on radical gender ideology—from bathrooms to classrooms to legal definitions of “sex.”
Earlier this year, following Trump’s executive order, Gov. Greg Abbott directed state agency heads to recognize “only two sexes—male and female.” He also defined sex discrimination as “treating a member of one sex less favorably than the other, absent some pertinent difference.”
Texas lawmakers solidified that directive in late May, passing a measure that defines a woman as an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed “to produce ova,” and a man, “to fertilize the ova of a female.”
Abbott signed the legislation into law on June 20, and it is set to take effect in September.
