Federal officials abruptly ended Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grants on June 26, removing $936,700 a year from Children's Aid and disrupting services to about 1,200 young people across New York City. The nationwide cancellation of 53 grants accompanies a shift toward abstinence-focused criteria that de-emphasize STI prevention and attention to LGBTQ youth. Children's Aid leaders and Democratic lawmakers warn the cuts sever trusted relationships, threaten peer-led programs like JAM and risk worsening already concentrated health disparities.
Federal Cut To Teen Pregnancy Grants Removes Vital Sexual-Health Support For NYC Youth
On June 26, Children's Aid was gearing up to continue its summer sexual health and youth development programs in New York City schools, foster-care settings and community organizations. By the end of the day, the federal funding that supported that work had been terminated without advance notice.
The abrupt action ended Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP) grants nationwide, stripping Children's Aid of $936,700 a year with two years remaining on the award. The loss threatens services that reached roughly 1,200 young people annually and affected nine staff members (six full-time, three part-time).
What Children's Aid Provided
Children's Aid has served under-resourced New York communities for more than 170 years. Its health and wellness division runs two community clinics and six school-based health centers, providing medical, dental, behavioral health, nutrition, family planning and health-care management services. The organization also delivered programming at the Administration for Children's Services Children's Center, a temporary site for youth awaiting foster-care placement.
Programs at Risk
The grant supported multiple initiatives, including classroom and after-school sexual-health curricula, specialized programming for foster youth, and the Just Ask Me (JAM) peer-education initiative. JAM trains high school students to co-facilitate sessions, organize events, advocate for adolescent health and counter misinformation among peers. Staff say the sudden funding cut leaves them scrambling to determine which positions and programs can continue beyond the end of summer.
"We received notification on June 26 that effective June 26 our funding would be terminated," said Rhonda Braxton, vice president for health and wellness at Children's Aid. "There was no advance notification, and there was no runway to really end the program."
Broader Impact And Policy Shift
The administration canceled 53 grants nationwide as part of an overhaul of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. New funding criteria emphasize abstinence and place greater focus on marriage, fertility and preparing adolescents for parenthood, while making relatively little reference to preventing sexually transmitted infections or explicitly recognizing the needs of LGBTQ youth. Across New York City, the decision removed $4.3 million in annual funding from three grantee organizations and disrupted services reaching more than 19,000 young people.
When Sex Education Funding Is Taken Away, Young People Lose a Safe Space
Several nonprofit organizations and local governments have filed suit to challenge the terminations and the changes to the program's evidence-based framework. Separately, 79 members of the Democratic Women's Caucus and other House Democratic members sent a letter demanding that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explain the cancellations and restore the funding.
Why This Matters
Children's Aid leaders emphasize that their programming does not encourage sexual activity; rather, it teaches young people how to recognize unhealthy relationships, communicate effectively, practice consent, access medical care and make decisions that protect their futures. Pascale Saintonge Austin, director of family planning and pregnancy prevention programs at Children's Aid, noted that foster youth have unique needs that generic materials cannot meet.
"We won't be able to provide such a specific curriculum to them anymore that was tailored and made for them," Saintonge Austin said.
Supporters of evidence-based prevention point to long-term declines in teen birthrates nationally—driven by factors such as reduced sexual activity among teens, increased contraceptive use and the impact of prevention programs. Yet New York City has shown a concerning recent reversal: in 2023, three out of every four pregnancies among city teenagers were unintended, and rates remain higher in neighborhoods with very high poverty, disproportionately affecting Black and Latinx youth.
Next Steps And Local Response
Children's Aid has pursued internal staffing adjustments, contacted school and community partners and begun seeking alternative funding, but replacing nearly $1 million annually is not a realistic short-term solution. Leaders and elected officials warn that sudden cuts undermine trusted relationships between youth and providers at a time when accurate information is critical.
"Our concern is the loss of trusted relationships for our young people," Braxton said, "and our inability to provide these much-needed, evidence-based, medically accurate services in an era where there's a lot of disinformation and mistrust."
Democratic lawmakers including Rep. Judy Chu and Rep. Kelly Morrison have condemned the move and demanded answers. Lawsuits from nonprofits and local governments seek to challenge both the cancellations and the shift in evidence criteria for the program.
This story was originally published by The 19th.
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