FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services on Friday will terminate $67 million of teenage pregnancy prevention grants to defund “sexually explicit” curricula, according to documents obtained exclusively by the Daily Signal.
The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health’s Office of Population Affairs provides grants to organizations that promote teen pregnancy prevention, as well as organizations that write teen pregnancy prevention curricula. HHS terminated 53 of 67 of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grants after a department review.
The Biden-era HHS awarded organizations that push curricula the Trump administration calls “medically inaccurate,” “age inappropriate,” and “sexually explicit,” violating the statute that set up the program.
HHS will announce two new award opportunities for potential partners that promote body literacy in place of radical gender ideology, abortion, and contraception. The opportunities will “focus on programs that do not promote material that depicts, describes, exposes, or presents obscene, indecent, or sexually explicit content, including content that normalizes or promotes sexual activity for minors.”
Explicit Curricula Losing Funding
Grantees in question used curricula that promoted pornography, contraception, transgenderism, abortion, and more to middle- and high-school-aged audiences.
WARNING: The following excerpts may be unsuitable for some readers.
For instance, the “Positive Prevention Plus” curriculum for high schoolers defines “gender identity” as “a person’s deeply-felt sense of being male or female, or being something in-between (cisgender, transgender).” The “gender binary” definition says the term “refers to a belief system that represents gender as two distinct and opposite categories, male and female,” as opposed to “gender expansive,” which refers to a “wider, more flexible range of gender identities and expressions instead of the binary gender system.”
Another part of that curriculum walks minors through the process of obtaining abortions, citing California state law that “minors can access abortion without parental notification or consent.” Positive Prevention Plus describes abortion as a “very safe procedure when done under medical supervision, with a major complication occurring less than one-quarter of 1% of the time.”
“Key points regarding terminating a pregnancy include: a pregnant person, including minors, can access abortion legally for any reason until 24 weeks after their last menstrual period,” the curriculum says.
“After that, if the pregnancy puts the person’s health or life at risk, the person still can legally access abortion,” the materials continue. “A pregnancy can be terminated through medication or through a procedure to empty the uterus early in pregnancy.”
Another curriculum titled “Wrap It Up,” intended for grades 9-12, includes content glorifying pornography when used in a “safe, private way” to obtain ideas on how to “spice things up” with partners.
The “Love Notes” curriculum, designed for ages 14-19, features excerpts describing various forms of pornography, including a celebrity interview discussing exposure to abusive pornography beginning at age 11 and escalating to graphic violent content by age 14.
The celebrity, “Billie,” described abusive porn including “being slapped, choked, thrown around.”
“The interviewer adds: Spanking people, way more violent. Finneas describes it as: Hard-core pornography,” according to the curriculum.
The SHARP Curriculum for ages 15-19 asks teenagers to discuss “obtaining condoms,” including comparing “differences in costs, privacy, and any other concerns.” The conversation facilitator is told to “Briefly discuss carrying condoms, covering the following topics: Where can teenagers carry condoms?”
The “Be Proud, Be Responsible” curriculum includes a “role play” scenario of two boys weighing whether or not to use condoms to avoid HIV.
“Alonzo: You have slept with Will three times already, always unprotected. You have goals and dreams for the future and you want to use condoms. Your role: get Will to agree that condoms need to be used when you are both having sex,” the curriculum says.
“Will: You and Alonzo have just started being sexually intimate,” the scenario continues. “You have not used a condom during sex because you think you are too young to get HIV. You think only older guys get HIV; and that young ones are safe. You are not interested in using condoms until you are older. You think that condoms ruin the mood and interfere with the pleasure of having sex. You also know that Alonzo has a serious girlfriend.”
The “Linking Families and Teens” curriculum describes condoms as “easy to use,” saying, “many teens use condoms successfully.”
“Straight, gay, bisexual, queer, and people of all gender identities and sexual orientations use condoms,” the curriculum states.
The teacher is told to say to students: “We are now going to learn how condoms are used. For some of you this may feel awkward. For others, it may be no big deal. But, condoms are so important we want everyone to have this experience.”
The curriculum includes “facilitator tips,” including information on how to make “dental dams.” The facilitator is also told to teach the “steps to using a condom” using a demonstration with a “wooden penis.”
“Ask who wants to practice the steps themselves, and pass out a practice condom to each participant,” the teacher instructions read.
The “Making Proud Choices” curriculum, aimed for ages 11-16, has students “practice the steps for using an external condom correctly.”
“Many of you have never seen or touched a condom,” the curriculum says. “We’re going to practice using external condoms so that you will know what they feel like and how to use them if and when you are ready to use them.”
Another curriculum called Plan A features a video of underage characters drinking out of red Solo cups, “engaging in sexual relations,” and “discussing sexual intercourse.”
A character in the video says “Our culture is so old fashioned. My parents never talk about sex. And if they knew I was getting busy, they’d freak.”
Another character responds with “They don’t know you’re a lesbian?” to which the other says, “No, anyway, I’m bisexual.”
New Funding Opportunities
In addition to terminating 53 grants, HHS issued two new notice of funding opportunities for organizations aligned with the administration’s priorities.
The first notice asks for applications for projects that “rigorously evaluate promising interventions that contribute to adolescent optimal health and preventing teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), behavioral risk factors underlying teen pregnancy, or other associated risk factors.”
The Office of Population Affairs intends to make available approximately $8.3 million for nine grant awards.
The second notice will take applications for projects “provide medically accurate and age-appropriate programs that reduce teen pregnancy and advance adolescent health by strengthening body literacy, informed consent, and optimal health through the replication of effective teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) programs.”
