The Trump administration just suffered another major defeat of its efforts to shift funding from evidence-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grants toward unproven, abstinence-only programs.

By dropping its appeal of an Oregon federal court’s ruling that the Department of Health and Human Services flouted congressional mandates by issuing unlawful new criteria for prospective Teen Pregnancy Program grantees, the Trump administration conceded defeat in the case we and Pacifica Law Group brought on behalf of Multnomah County, Oregon.

We have brought multiple cases against the Trump administration to protect the TPP Program, which serves more than one million teens across America. In all of those cases, the administration has been defeated and agreed to drop all appeals.

This is another victory for the health of America’s teens and for evidence-based public policy.

Despite the court rulings and the government’s decision not to appeal, concerns remain that the administration is continuing to surreptitiously and unlawfully expend TPP Program funds. In a December 2018 letter to HHS Secretary Azar, members of Congress expressed concern that the administration may be bypassing court orders by using a third-party government contractor to direct federal funds toward abstinence-only programs.

In January 2019, Democracy Forward took the administration to court again for stonewalling in releasing records that could show whether HHS unlawfully expended TPP Program funds yet again.