$325,000: HHS Funded Adapting a Pregnancy Prevention Program for Transgender Boys. The Underlying Problem Is Real. DOGE Terminated It.

HHS Office of Population Affairs funded $325,000 to adapt an evidence-based pregnancy prevention program for transgender boys — adolescents who identify as male but have female reproductive biology and can become pregnant. Published peer-reviewed research has documented that transgender male adolescents have higher rates of unintended pregnancy than their cisgender female peers, attributed to decreased engagement with standard reproductive health services and providers who are not equipped to address their needs. A study in Pediatrics found that transgender boys reported becoming pregnant at rates comparable to or higher than teenage girls nationally.

This grant occupies an unusual position in the DOGE debate: it is pregnancy prevention research — an area where Republicans and Democrats have historically found common ground — applied to a population that DOGE’s categorical rule reached. The program being adapted was evidence-based and had demonstrated effectiveness in cisgender adolescent populations. The grant was adapting it for a population with documented higher unintended pregnancy rates. DOGE terminated it under EO 14168.