Lawsuits challenge efforts to push abstinence-only on teens

SHARE Lawsuits challenge efforts to push abstinence-only on teens
virgin_sign_e1529720113490.jpg

Several affiliates of Planned Parenthood are suing the Department of Health and Human Services over its efforts to impose an abstinence-only focus on its Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program that has served more than 1 million young people. The lawsuits were filed on June 22, 2018 in federal courts in New York City and Spokane, Washington, by four different Planned Parenthood affiliates covering New York City and the states of Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska and Washington. | AP file photo

SPOKANE, Wash. — Several affiliates of Planned Parenthood sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday over its efforts to impose an abstinence-only focus on its Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program that has served more than 1 million young people.

The lawsuits were filed in federal courts in New York City and Spokane, Washington, by four different Planned Parenthood affiliates covering New York City and the states of Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska and Washington.

Planned Parenthood says the lawsuits are intended to protect the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program from what they termed ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage curriculums.

“Young people have the right to the information and skills they need to protect their health,” Dawn Laguens said in a press release, vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “The Trump-Pence administration is trying to impose their abstinence-only agenda on young people across the country.”

Evidence shows such programs do not work, Laguens said.

An email sent to the Health and Human Services public relations office was not immediately answered on Friday.

In previous court documents, the agency has said it has the right to change its funding priorities.

The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program has served about 1.2 million teens in 39 states since it started in 2010. The Trump administration in April announced it would remake the program to push abstinence-only counseling.

Last year, the agency informed recipients of 81 teen pregnancy prevention grants that it would terminate their grant agreements two years early, meaning this year. That decision was made after President Trump appointed Valerie Huber as chief of staff for the Office of Assistant Secretary of Health.

After her appointment, Huber wrote an article decrying the lack of federal funding for abstinence education and questioned the effectiveness of teen pregnancy prevention grants.

In April, a federal judge in Spokane blocked the Trump administration from cutting the grants. Judges in Seattle, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., have made similar rulings.

Supporters of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program credit it with helping to lower the teen pregnancy rate 41 percent since 2010. But the agency has issued past statements calling the program ineffective.

Congress created the $110 million program in 2010 to support and develop evidence-based ways to reduce teen pregnancy. In 2015, HHS awarded the 81 grants that were to last five years.

The lawsuits were filed by Planned Parenthood of New York City; Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands; Planned Parenthood of the Heartland; and Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho.

They contend that abstinence-only programs can contain false and misleading information and stigmatize teens who have sex.

“Most people have had sex by the time they’re 18,” Planned Parenthood said in a press release.

In addition to the agency, the lawsuits name as defendants HHS Secretary Alex Azar and Huber.

The Latest
Murder charges have been filed against suspect Christian I. Soto, 22. Investigators haven’t determined a motive for the attacks, but they say Soto had been smoking marijuana before the rampage.
To celebrate the historic coinciding of the emerging of two broods, artists can adopt a cicada for free in exchange for decorating it and displaying it publicly. Others can purchase the cicadas for $75.
Senators tasked with clearing Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s appointments are raising concerns over his renomination of Illinois Emergency Management Agency Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau after the Sun-Times last year reported an executive assistant accounted for more than $240,000 in billings.
White Sox fans from all over will flock to Guaranteed Rate Field on Thursday for the team’s home opener against the Tigers.