The Harm of Politicizing Science
For many of us, politics is — or rather was — something that we really didn’t think about in our day-to-day lives. As researchers we are often taught to stay above politics and focus on the scientific quality of our work, believing that the results will speak for themselves. But now, we find ourselves in an unprecedented time as the once-respected rigor of the scientific method — designing experiments, producing data, and building a body of evidence that withstands careful scrutiny — is losing favor at the highest levels of government.
On June 26, 2026, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of Population Affairs abruptly terminated the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program that funded our Film Learning Experience (FLEx) Study. This study was created to test the efficacy of an education-entertainment intervention we designed featuring an IWES-made film and curriculum specifically for and with youth who are involved (or at risk of involvement) with the juvenile legal and/or child welfare system. The study was medically accurate, trauma-informed, and designed to promote healthy mental and physical behaviors. At the time of termination, we had 273 youth enrolled that will now no longer be able to receive the information, resources, and incentives that the program was meant to provide.
IWES was not the only organization that abruptly received a termination notice. The majority of TPP grants — which were mid-way through a five-year period — were terminated. The TPP program is a Congressionally approved initiative that was established in 2010 and has been providing funding to organizations and institutions across the US to implement, design, and evaluate innovative comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programming. Over these 15+ years, the program has produced real, measurable reduction in the behaviors driving teen pregnancy. Although critics note that the teen birth rate was declining prior to the implementation of TPP, rigorous evaluations have independently shown its effectiveness. More importantly, it provided youth, many of whom already faced systemic barriers, with the information and education needed for them to make informed decisions about their bodies.
These cuts have been devastating not only for IWES and other TPP grantees, but also for the youth we serve. Here at IWES we strongly value justice and equity. We come to work wanting to make lives better for communities facing health challenges and inequities, and that often includes youth. Sex education in Louisiana has historically been spotty, creating an environment where many youth lack access to vital information to keep themselves safe. Our FLEx Study was meant to close that gap. Our goal was to ensure that more youth had access to quality, evidence-based comprehensive sexuality education by working with a population (youth in or impacted by the juvenile justice system) that is often discarded and left out of programming.
In response to the unanticipated termination of the grants, four plaintiffs filed suit against HHS on July 14 in a case entitled Hennepin County v. HHS. Those four plaintiffs are Hennepin County, Minnesota; King County, Washington; Planned Parenthood of the Heartland; and SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. The plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Forward, Public Citizen, and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. After reviewing the case, Federal Judge Christopher Cooper, issued an order blocking HHS from awarding new grants under a revised call for proposals that the administration had actually put out days before the termination, and which focused on fertility tracking rather than pregnancy prevention. While this news was encouraging, unfortunately, the grants that were terminated in June will remain terminated, which means that the funds Congress has already appropriated for these programs is sitting unused.
In this case, political ideology has been weaponized to negatively impact the wellbeing of American youth. This was clearly demonstrated in the aforementioned revised calls for proposals, which were posted three days before current grantees received their termination letters. These notices state that teen pregnancy prevention programs must promote “body literacy” — a concept with no clear definition that appears to prioritize procreation over evidence-based contraception and pregnancy prevention. In his memorandum opinion in Hennepin County v. HHS, Judge Cooper wrote, "On the topic of body literacy, the notices (remarkably) reference public health studies that appear either not to exist or not to support the propositions for which they are cited — a hallmark of AI-generated citations."