АНУ-ын Эрүүл мэнд, хүний үйлчилгээний яам өсвөр үеийнхний жирэмслэлтээс урьдчилан сэргийлэх хөтөлбөрийн санхүүжилтийн шалгуурыг шинэчилж, бэлгийн харьцаанд орохоос татгалзах сургалтыг голчлох шийдвэр гаргав.
Тус яамнаас шинээр тогтоосон журмын дагуу санхүүжилт авах төслүүд нь зөвхөн бэлгийн харьцаанаас татгалзахыг сурталчлах шаардлагатай болж байна. Уг өөрчлөлтийн хүрээнд өмнө нь хэрэгжиж байсан олон тооны хөтөлбөрийн санхүүжилтийг шууд зогсоосон нь нөхөн үржихүйн эрүүл мэндийн байгууллагуудын эсэргүүцэлтэй тулгарч, шүүхийн маргаан үүсгэжээ.
Эрүүл мэндийн сайд Роберт Ф.Кеннеди (бага) АНУ-д тулгарч буй төрөлтийн түвшний бууралтыг үндэсний аюулгүй байдалд заналхийлж буй хямрал хэмээн тодорхойлж, залуучуудын нөхөн үржихүйн эрүүл мэнд болон гэр бүл төлөвлөлтийг дэмжихэд анхаарлаа хандуулахыг шаардаж байна. Шинэ журмаар хөтөлбөрүүд нь бэлгийн боловсролоос илүүтэйгээр төрөлт болон гэр бүлийн үнэ цэнийг сурталчлах чиглэлтэй болох юм.
Нөхөн үржихүйн эрүүл мэндийн байгууллагууд болон зарим хууль тогтоогчид энэхүү шийдвэрийг шинжлэх ухааны үндэслэлгүй, улс төрийн үзэл сурталд суурилсан алхам хэмээн шүүмжилж байна. Тэдний үзэж буйгаар, өсвөр үеийнхний жирэмслэлтийг бууруулахад үр дүнтэй байсан цогц хөтөлбөрүүдийг цуцалснаар бэлгийн замаар дамжих халдвар нэмэгдэж, эрүүл мэндийн эрсдэл үүсэх магадлалтай юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
<![CDATA[{"className":"sc-1ge0fwe-0","newsletterData":{"pianoFieldName":"receiveInsideWashingtonNews","regTitle":"Inside Washington","subscriptionGroup":"inside_washington","subscriptionGroupId":"af764e04-87eb-45e6-a84b-a7455ba70a1e","type":"inside_washington","pathPrefix":"/news/world/americas/us-politics","associatedAuthors":["Eric Garcia","John Bowden"],"title":"Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox","mobileTitle":"Get our free Inside Washington email","imageSrc":"https://static.independent.co.uk/static-assets/images/newsletters/insideWashington1_1.png","label":"I would like to receive morning headlines Monday – Friday plus breaking news alerts by email“,”newsletterKey”:”receiveInsideWashington”,”regSourceSection”:”US politics”,”regSourceNewsletter”:”NSC”},”isClimate”:false}]]>
Donald Trump’s administration is steering millions of dollars to teen health programs that focus on abstinence-only sex education, fertility tracking and the importance of marriage — sweeping changes that advocates fear will reverse declining trends of teen birthrates.
The new rules for grant applications, which are due this week, have upended comprehensive reproductive health programs for vulnerable youth across the country. Existing grants were canceled this year, jeopardizing millions of dollars for programs that have been proven to reduce teen pregnancies and transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.
Instead, new criteria under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services require grant recipients to teach abstinence as the only means to prevent pregnancies, with little mention of sexually transmitted disease prevention, let alone LGBTQ+ people.
cookie.trim() === ‘__DEBUG__=true’)) { console.log(‘Ad logs: “mpu1”, injectedAtParagraph: 3’); }]]>
But a focus on fertility and the importance of sex for procreation suggest the administration is placing a greater emphasis on telling young women and girls how to plan for pregnancy — not prevent it.
Callie Simon, executive director of Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, called the Trump administration’s termination of the grants a “reckless” decision that is “already hurting young people and disrupting proven programs in communities nationwide.”
“We are fighting back because young people deserve medically accurate, inclusive sex education, not ideological programs that ignore the evidence, violate the law, and put their health and well-being at risk,” she said.
cookie.trim() === ‘__DEBUG__=true’)) { console.log(‘Ad logs: “taboola-carousel-thumbnails”, injectedAtParagraph: 6’); }]]>
Simon’s organization is among plaintiffs suing to stop the changes to the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, which was created by Congress in 2010. Funding for the program has been renewed on a bipartisan basis over the last 16 years, including in the 2026 budget bill.
Teen birth rates declined by roughly 72 percent within that time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Advocates have attributed gradually plunging teen birth rates to better access to birth control, contraception and comprehensive sex ed.
cookie.trim() === ‘__DEBUG__=true’)) { console.log(‘Ad logs: “mpu2”, injectedAtParagraph: 8’); }]]>
Studies have also repeatedly shown that abstinence-only programs result in higher rates of teen pregnancies.
Last year, the Trump administration called the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program “radical indoctrination.”
cookie.trim() === ‘__DEBUG__=true’)) { console.log(‘Ad logs: “mpu3”, injectedAtParagraph: 10’); }]]>
Now, in order to be eligible for funding, programs must include counseling on reproductive goals and “affirm marriage and parenthood as meaningful and value components of adult life,” according to the Trump administration.
The application language mirrors proposals from right-wing groups, including policy papers from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint for the Trump administration, as well as controversial proposals backed by the so-called Make America Healthy Again movement.
The proposals have also revived fears that Republican officials — who have repeatedly warned against what they see is Islamic fundamentalist “sharia” law imposed on American society — are embedding Christian nationalist concepts into domestic policy and healthcare.
The new language also echoes recent guidelines for Title X family planning programs. Grant recipients for those programs must focus on “natural family planning” and “preconception health services.” Those guidelines don’t mention “birth control.”
Funding for teen pregnancy prevention programs must “promote optimal health through an upstream, preventive approach by emphasizing root-cause understanding of chronic health conditions that may impact overall health and fertility” — a reference to the controversial “restorative reproductive medicine” alternative to in vitro fertilization treatments.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has warned against relying on that approach, which can be “ineffective and redundant” and add unnecessarily delays to patients seeking medical treatment. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine has called it “a political rather than a scientific concept.”
Secretary Kennedy, who has claimed that there is a “fertility crisis” in the U.S. that “poses a threat” to “national security,” has repeatedly endorsed the concept.
“This is a backdoor, ideologically driven effort disguised as education, defying Congress’s clear directive that these grants support medically accurate, age-appropriate, evidence-based programs,” according to Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which joined the lawsuit against the changes.
The Independent has requested comment from Health and Human Services.
The law supporting the program requires funding recipients to provide “age-appropriate programs that reduce teen pregnancy.”
But three days after the new guidelines were published this summer, previous funding recipients received notices that their funding was “terminated effective immediately,” according to the lawsuit.
Boilerplate termination letters told recipients that their curricula “normalize adolescent sexual activity and are not age appropriate,” or “provide insufficient information on the range of health risks associated with various forms of birth control,” court filings show.
One program in South Carolina was stripped of a $1.6 million grant over “content that encourages, normalizes or promotes sexual activity for minors,” according to The New York Times.
A termination letter accused Fact Forward of including lessons with “advice on making condom use more pleasurable” and discussions that normalize “use of pornography,” while a video contained a “scenario of adolescents engaging in sexual activity.” The organization said the administration grossly mischaracterized its programming.
Healthy Futures of Texas — which supports teens in Dallas, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley — won renewal of its grant less than a year ago. But those same conditions for renewal were cited as reasons for terminating the grant. “So we’re all struggling a little bit to understand,” the organization’s chief executive Ginger Mullaney told The Times.
As a result of the mass cancellations, “existing awardees were kicked out of the program — with no regard for the efficacy of their projects or the consequences of terminating them mid-stream with an immediate effect date — because they purportedly failed to align with vague new agency priorities untethered from the statutory purpose,” according to lawyers for the plaintiffs.
Reproductive health groups have been “forced to suspend or start dismantling ongoing teen education programs, pause needed research, interrupt services to adolescents and families, lay off trained personnel and place other staff at risk of termination, and jeopardize longstanding partnerships with schools, healthcare providers, and community organizations,” the lawsuit says.
A group of Democratic senators are also urging Kennedy to immediately restore funding after a “pattern of actions the Trump administration has taken to undermine access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare and put the health and wellbeing of our young people at risk.”
“Your decision to terminate this funding squarely aligns with your department’s established pattern of rejecting evidence and science, ignoring Congressional intent, and undermining the ability of people to make their own healthcare decisions,” they wrote.
