WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. John Fetterman joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers pressing the Department of Health and Human Services to restore terminated Teen Pregnancy Prevention grants before the Sept. 30 fiscal-year deadline, escalating a dispute over more than $100 million in congressionally appropriated funding that recipients say is needed to maintain programs nationwide.
The Pennsylvania Democrat and 92 other members of Congress called on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reinstate grants HHS terminated earlier this summer. The lawmakers said only $579,499 of the program’s $101 million appropriation had been distributed to a single grantee when they sent the letter.
Federal grant records confirm a $579,499 non-competing continuation award issued in July to Health Care Education & Training Inc. HHS describes the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program as a congressionally mandated initiative with an annual budget of about $101 million.
The dispute follows HHS’ cancellation of 53 of 67 Teen Pregnancy Prevention grants in June. Fetterman challenged the terminations in July, including their effect on Pennsylvania organizations, before joining the latest congressional effort.
The program funds organizations providing teen pregnancy prevention and sexual health education. In Pennsylvania, Family Health Council of Central Pennsylvania and AccessMatters serve communities across 24 counties using program grants, according to Fetterman’s office.
HHS has separately opened new competitions for Teen Pregnancy Prevention funding. Its 2026 funding notice says it intends to make as much as $63.4 million available for an estimated 52 awards under one component of the program, while another competition provides about $8.3 million for nine evaluation awards.
The lawmakers argue that replacing the terminated grants through new competitions does not address the immediate disruption facing existing recipients.
“The only reasonable path forward is to provide funding to the grantees that were previously subject to the Department’s arbitrary terminations,” the lawmakers wrote. They also said a federal district court had blocked HHS from implementing new funding conditions.
The letter said most of the terminated grants were in the third year of five-year cycles. It cited Central Pennsylvania as one area facing immediate effects, saying more than 10,000 teenagers could lose access to services because funding for one provider was discontinued.
HHS’ own description of the program says it was established in 2010 to fund medically accurate, age-appropriate approaches to reducing teen pregnancy. The department says the program focuses on communities and populations with significant needs.
The congressional letter warned that funding not made available by Sept. 30 could expire without being spent for its appropriated purpose and called for every terminated grant to be reinstated.
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