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The federal government is taking a swipe at funding for teen pregnancy prevention, sparking concerns in Ohio and elsewhere as advocates try to continue helping teens.
The cuts are also controversial for teenagers who are already parents.
Rosemary Oglesby-Henry was a teen mom herself thirty years ago, and from what she’s seen, not much has changed in the perception of teen pregnancy.
“I decided to become a parent, and when I decided to become a parent, there were no resources to teach me how to be a mother,” she told the Capital Journal.
In 2016, Oglesby-Henry founded Rosemary’s Babies Company, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping teen parents learn not only parenting skills, but also how to achieve educational goals, gain job skills and delay having more children.
The founder and CEO hopes to be part of the support that may not be as needed in the future.
“Basically, what we’re saying is OK, we understand that you have a child, but… you can still go back to school, you can wait until you expand your family and have another child, and that way you get back to your goal so you’re not dependent on the government and you don’t end up on the economic cliff, especially for our young girls,” she said.
Rosemary’s Babies is a donor-driven nonprofit that also receives state funding, which she says is challenging to come by in the area of teen pregnancy support, but is most essential when it comes to supporting population often burdened with trauma and abuse no other supportsincluding sex education.
“It helps reduce the stigma, so organizations like mine can now seek support by saying, ‘I’m not promoting teen pregnancy, but when these young people have babies, we need to help them before they get caught up in the system,’” Oglesby-Henry said.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Administration recently announced a plan to cancel 53 of 67 grants for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, amounting to approximately $68 million in eliminated financing.
Federal health agency cancels most subsidies to prevent teen pregnancy
Stateline reported that President Donald Trump took similar action during his first term, changing grant funding for more than 80 recipients before a judge halted the action by ruling in favor of the legal group Democracy Forward in a lawsuit alleging violations of agency regulations.
The latest actions are also the subject of a lawsuit in which Democracy Forward is again involved is suing the Trump administration to stop the cuts.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital Research Institute was recognized as one of the recipients of 2020-2023 federal grants, receiving more than $860,000 for the Changing Landscape for Youth Health Equity and Access in Central Ohio program, according to the HHS website.
Hospital representatives were unavailable for comment.
Nationwide, Children’s continues to operate its Teen and Pregnant Women’s Program, which provides prenatal and postnatal care to pregnant women up to age 21.
According to the program’s website, the Teen Pregnancy Clinic allows pregnant women to meet with doctors, participate in group meetings, learn about infant care and enroll in public programs, including federal food assistance, as well as learn about birth control for the future.
According to the Health and Social Care Agency’s own data, for a purpose it calls “Healthy People 2030,“Babies born to teenage mothers are “more likely to be born prematurely, have low birth weight and even die.”
“Having a child can also negatively impact teen mothers’ health and their educational and career opportunities,” the HHS data states. “Although teen pregnancy and birth rates have declined in recent years, race/ethnicity disparities persist.”
The department also states that “evidence shows that a variety of outreach and education programs can help reduce teen pregnancy rates.”
State data from 2024 showed that 69 children were born in Ohio to mothers younger than 15 years of age, more than 1,300 children were born to people aged 15 to 17, and almost 4,000 children were born to mothers aged 18 to 19.
The latest state data is still considered preliminary, but 2025 data showed that 52 children under the age of 15 were born in Ohio in 2025 and more than 1,000 children between the ages of 15 and 17 were born in 2025, according to the Ohio Department of Health database. People aged 18 to 19 represented over 3,700 births in 2025.
The most recent CDC data on teen births is from 2024. Ohio’s teen birth rate that year was 14 per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19, a slight decline from the previous yearwhen it was 14.6 per 1,000 Ohioans.
Teen pregnancy-related funding is also part of state grant efforts, particularly through a program established by Gov. Mike DeWine called the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
The money traditionally comes from federal and state contributions to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
The Ohio General Assembly’s most recent operating budget authorized up to $26.8 million for Governor’s Office initiatives in 2026 and 2027.
DeWine’s spokesman did not comment specifically when asked about cuts to federal teen pregnancy prevention programs, but said the governor’s office and the state Office of Budget and Management “continuously monitor federal funding decisions throughout the year.”
The latest executive order of DeWine, who directs TANF funding for 2026 and 2027, stated that one of the goals of the TANF program is to “prevent and reduce the incidence of nonmarital pregnancies and to establish annual numerical goals to prevent and reduce the incidence of these pregnancies.”
Following the recent cuts, HHS has launched up-to-date grant programs called “Replicating Effective Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs” and “Rigorous Assessment of the Impact of Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs and Achieving Optimal Health,” according to the agency’s website.
The Trump administration also plans to allocate money temperance education and emphasis on marriagewith the language for submitting grant applications referring, among others, to: to concepts supported by conservative groups that advise against, among others, contraception.
Sex education and the “success sequence”
For years, the state has been criticized for lacking a standardized sex education curriculum, which advocates say contributes to the teen pregnancy rate.
Sex education advocacy group SIECUS has given Ohio a failing grade in a national ranking of state sex education programs.
The group condemned the latest development in the state’s sex education program, called “success sequence”, which requires the school to teach students that they should graduate from high school, get a job and get married sequentially before the baby is born.
Under the up-to-date law, a “sequence of success” would be a graduation requirement.
AND 2021 study commissioned by the federal Health and Human Services Agency found that although graduating from high school, working full-time, and getting married do reduce the risk of poverty, the order of events is not necessarily essential.
“Regarding the relationship between milestones and economic self-sufficiency at ages 35–40, our results suggest that individual milestones, regardless of order, appear to be the primary factors associated with economic outcomes in adulthood,” the study said.
For Oglesby-Henry, the information provided by the “success sequence” and other metrics can be helpful, even as a conversation starter.
“It teaches about economics and the impact that happens when we make these decisions, and it also teaches about the consequences,” she said.
However, lessons are still needed at higher levels about the consequences of promoting pregnancy without providing the support needed.
“With the administration pushing for families to have more children and things like that, we have to assess whether people can afford day care, if we cut benefits, whether they can afford housing,” Oglesby-Henry said.
The founder of Rosemary’s Babies, which recently opened in Holloway House to provide housing support, workforce training and other programs for teenage parents, is seeking to combat the rise of homelessness among youthful mothers too, making funding even more essential.
“We’re looking at how we can continue to help these families where, if we get them through our program, we get the training that this administration requires (encouragement)… but when they complete all that, they can’t afford housing or they still can’t afford to live,” Oglesby-Henry said.
It is not uncomplicated to finance support for pregnant teenagers and prevention in the future, she said, but education and money to continue it will bring more results.
“Prevention always costs less than the actual epidemic or actual problem,” says Oglesby-Henry.
