Teen Pregnancy Prevention Cuts Will Affect At-Risk Youth Across the Country Meeting the unique sexual health needs of youth in foster care can be a daunting task, but many TPP grantees specifically work with this cohort of young people.

West Virginia has the sixth highest teen pregnancy rate in the country. TPP grantees help teach these vulnerable youth about healthy relationships, communication, prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and their rights to sexual and reproductive health services.

Many of the models funded through the TPP Program have also been proven to reduce the number of teen pregnancies or related behaviors like delaying sex, increasing contraceptive use, and decreasing the number of sexual partners: 41 evaluations conducted during the first round of grants found 12 evaluations (29 percent or 1 in 3) showed positive impacts. still become pregnant at least once by the age of 20, and rates are significantly higher for young women of color and those living in poverty.

In addition, The National Campaign conducted polling showing that 85 percent of adults favor continuing the TPP Program, including 75 percent of Republicans and 89 percent of Democrats. Dismantling this evidence-based program will harm hundreds of thousands of our most vulnerable youth by denying them high-quality information and education that would help them make healthy decisions about their futures.

With such high stakes for our most at-risk youth, why would our government suddenly decide against investing in our nation’s youth by defunding programs like the TPP Program?