By New York Post (Politics) | Created at 2025-03-26 00:11:27 | Updated at 2025-03-26 13:04:21
12 hours ago
Trump administration officials have severed $620,288 worth of federal funding that was aimed, in part, at pregnancy prevention for transgender boys, a senior official confirmed to The Post.
The grant, titled “inclusive teen pregnancy prevention program for transgender boys,” was given to the Center for Innovative Public Health Research, a non-profit public health research group, by the National Institutes of Health.
All of the $620,288 in funding has been saved after the grant was cut off earlier this month, according to the official, who confirmed the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) claim about the cut.
“Youth who are assigned female at birth (afab) and identify as transgender … not as girls, are at risk for negative sexual health outcomes yet are effectively excluded from sexual health programs,” grant data given to the government explained.
“This lack of programming is likely contributing to obstacles to sexual health: data suggest that afab trans-identified youth may be less likely to use condoms when having sex with people who have penises and are at least as likely as cisgender girls to be pregnant.”
To remedy that issue, researchers sought to conduct a focus group test of transgender boys to help measure rates of unprotected sex, use of condoms, birth control, HIV/STI testing and PrEP pill usage.
Using that research, the Center for Innovative Public Health Research wanted to recalibrate its Girl2Girl program, which works to prevent unintended teenage pregnancies, to be more inclusive to transgender boys.
About 3.3% of high school students consider themselves transgender in 2023, according to survey data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, about 3% or 1 million Americans identify as transgender, per the CDC.
Data on the number of transgender men who give birth in the US is sparse, but one study by the University of Michigan found that between 2014 and 2018, there were about 1,907 such births — about 500 a year.
Data from Governmentspending.gov indicates that the Center for Innovative Public Health Research was obligated $1.3 million between the various grants it was awarded over time, including $325,537 that had been marked as outlaid.
The $620,288 in funding for pregnancy prevention among transgender boys was marked as a “continuation” last June under the Biden administration.
The Post contacted the Center for Innovative Public Health Research for comment.
Other recent cuts made across the Department of Health and Human Services include $1,344,044 from Boston Children’s Hospital for a “TransHealthGUIDE” initiative; $222,977 in savings from a University of Miami program to monitor migroagressions against black women with HIV; and $573,588 to the University of Michigan to research prevention for HIV spread in transgender women/men.
