Young people are getting the message loud and clear: Religious ideology takes precedence over their health, well-being and rights.
The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP) is a nationwide, evidenced-based program working with diverse organizations to prevent teen pregnancy. It’s so successful, it’s become a target: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a new policy this summer to restrict and possibly derail its own TPPP.
After the TPPP was established by Congress in 2010, teen birth rates fell 35 percent in the first five years (from 34 births per 1,000 girls in 2010 to 22 per 1,000 in 2015) and continued to reach new record lows each year.
It’s now down to 13.1 births per 1,000 girls as of 2023—a historic low.
But under the new administration, TPPP grants will come with strings attached. While current HHS policy reaffirms the mission of lowering teen pregnancy rates, it also imposes ideological mandates on TPPP grant recipients, such as universities, community nonprofits, state public health departments and Planned Parenthood affiliates.
To receive TPPP funds for research and community programs, all grantees must recognize the “immutable biological reality of sex,” deny “radical gender ideology,” and refrain from promoting “anti-American ideologies such as discriminatory equity ideology.” They must also inform parents of any programs or services that “may burden their religious exercise.”
We’ve seen this before—sex education is a tennis ball often bandied back and forth, relinquishing progress and overturning evidence-based, medically accurate information for disproven, religious ideology at the expense of young people’s health.
Comprehensive sex education (CSE) is an evidence-based, holistic approach that educates young people on a broad range of topics related to sexuality. It covers sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and pregnancy prevention, but it also gives students age-appropriate, accurate information about their bodies, sexual and reproductive health, relationships, gender and sexuality. CSE has been proven over decades of research to help young people develop important life skills and achieve healthy relationships.
Yet, the United States has a prolonged history of using CSE as a political sacrifice. As shown in the rePROs Fight Back annual 50-State Report Card on sexual and reproductive health care, only 13 states require comprehensive sex education. Others allow some topics to be taught but not others, while many states have opted not to provide sex education at all. In roughly half of U.S. states, students don’t receive accurate, age-appropriate sex education.
If they get sex ed at all, it’s likely to be abstinence-only. Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs originated in the Reagan administration and are now often called “sexual risk avoidance education.” They focus on abstaining from sexual activity, especially outside of marriage, and avoiding STIs. The four-decade push for abstinence-only programs has effectively curtailed young people’s rights by reinforcing stigma and withholding information they need to live safe, healthy lives.
Since they don’t get it in school, young people must cobble together inaccurate information about sex. Social determinants like education, income and unemployment rates have always influenced teen pregnancy rates in the U.S., but a dangerous set of ideologies that prioritize religious doctrine over evidence-based, accurate information is increasingly adding to the mix, including shrinking access to CSE, the proliferation of antiabortion centers, attacks on Title X and Planned Parenthood funding and recent attacks to the TPPP.
The effect (and likely the intent) of the new policy will be to make the TPPP inaccessible to those who need it. If universities, clinics and public health departments choose not to comply with the new restrictions, funding may dry up. And for the vulnerable pregnant and parenting youth who depend on TPPP grantee organizations, vital support will likely be pushed out of reach.
Young people are getting the message loud and clear: Religious ideology takes precedence over their health, well-being and rights.
This is especially true for LGBTQIA+ youth, whose very existence new policies seek to deny. On religious grounds, parents in Maryland fought all the way to the Supreme Court to exempt their children from exposure to LGBTQIA+ inclusive books in schools. Gender-affirming care for youth, which studies show is critical to their health and well-being, (and sometimes their survival) has been severely limited or outright banned in most U.S. states.
Just in time for the back-to-school season, the U.S. Department of Education is investigating four Topeka school districts for allowing transgender students to participate in sports and use restroom facilities based on their gender identity. Attacking school district policies that protect transgender students are part of the administration’s systematic disregard for the health and rights of young people in the United States.
Back-to-school season should be a time to affirm, empower and invest in young people’s well-being. Yet the new TPPP policy is a flagrant disregard for the health and rights of the U.S.’ youngest and most susceptible.
Great Job Rachel Marchand & the Team @ Ms. Magazine Source link for sharing this story.
