Administration’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Funding Rules Favor Abstinence-Focused Programs
The new rules for the funding do not exclude programs that provide information about contraception and protected sex, but they encourage ones that concentrate on abstinence. Groups that have been receiving federal money had been bracing for a change in the rules since last year
The New York Times:
Trump Administration Pushes Abstinence In Teen Pregnancy Programs
The Trump administration has issued new rules for funding programs to prevent teenage pregnancy, favoring those that promote abstinence and not requiring as rigorous evidence of effectiveness. While the funding announcement, issued Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services, does not exclude programs that provide information about contraception and protected sex, it explicitly encouraged programs that emphasize abstinence or “sexual risk avoidance.” (Belluck, 4/23)
The Hill:
Trump Admin Announces Abstinence-Focused Overhaul Of Teen Pregnancy Program
"Projects will clearly communicate that teen sex is a risk behavior for both the physical consequences of pregnancy and sexual transmitted infections; as well as sociological, economic and other related risks," the funding announcement reads. "Both risk avoidance and risk reduction approaches can and should include skills associated with helping youth delay sex as well as skills to help those youth already engaged in sexual risk to return toward risk-free choices in the future." In total, tier one will award up to $61 million in funds, ranging from $200,000 to $500,000 per year. The second tier solicits applications to develop and test "new and innovative strategies" to prevent teen pregnancy while improving adolescent health and addressing "youth sexual risk holistically by focusing on protective factors." (Hellmann, 4/20)
In other women's health news —
The Associated Press:
Planned Parenthood Sues Indiana Over New Abortion Rules
A new Indiana law that requires medical providers who treat women for complications arising from abortions to report detailed patient information to the state "imposes unique and burdensome obligations" that are unconstitutional, Planned Parenthood said in lawsuit filed Monday that seeks to block two of the law's provisions. The federal suit — the latest of several filed in recent years challenging abortion restrictions passed by Indiana lawmakers — contends that the reporting rules and a separate provision requiring annual inspections of abortion clinics are both unconstitutional because they target only abortions and abortion providers and not other procedures or clinics. (4/23)
