Duke University program faces layoffs after Trump admin cuts teen pregnancy grant

It was a normal Friday morning in Duke University’s Trent Hall when Kathryn Whetten received the email.

The federal government terminated the university’s grant for its teen pregnancy prevention program without any warning. The grant supported Whetten and other members of Duke’s project team in bringing sexual health education to nearby schools and summer programs.

Just a week earlier, the team was on a retreat. It met its goals and planned how to spend the fourth year of its $955,090 annual grant. But on June 26, the grant halted abruptly before completing its five-year term.

“It was just great confusion and shock and trying to move through, all of a sudden, the legal response and how we should move forward,” said Whetten, the principal investigator on Duke’s federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention grant.

Duke’s funding was one of 53 Teen Pregnancy Prevention grants canceled nationwide at the end of last month. Others include Cabarrus Health Alliance in Kannapolis, as reported by The Charlotte Observer on Monday, and Fact Forward, a nonprofit in Columbia, South Carolina, as reported by The New York Times last week. Duke’s grant was canceled for curricula that “normalize adolescent sexual activity” and “are not age appropriate,” the Health and Human Service’s Office of Population Affairs said in the email.

That same day, the university sent out termination letters to the members of the project team. The team’s participation in local summer programs paused. Now, if Whetten and the team cannot secure new federal funding, the project will shutter.

Last year, the team served more than 1,000 people, project director Kimberly McNeil said.

The federal grant allowed Duke to bring lessons about teen pregnancy prevention to middle and high schools across seven rural, eastern North Carolina counties: Craven, Pitt, Edgecombe, Nash, Martin, Hertford and Halifax.

The grant required recipients to teach evidence-based curricula, meaning that research shows methods effectively reduce teen pregnancy, Whetten said. Recipients must select teachings from a list provided by the Office of Population Affairs.

Lessons include education about sexually transmitted infections, financial literacy, accessing healthcare and more.

“It really is about engaging with young people,” McNeil said. “It’s about helping them make healthy decisions and helping them to be able to navigate relationships.”

The notice of termination said the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health believes some curricula originally approved for teen pregnancy prevention programs normalize teen sexual activity and are not age appropriate. The notice alleged Duke used three of these curricula.

Whetten confirmed Duke’s program gave instructions for condom use, as the email claimed. Duke’s team did not teach a lesson about pornography, which the email also alleged.

The Duke team’s response to the notice defended a lesson where students develop commercials for different birth control methods. In its response, the team denied the activity encourages sexual behavior and instead “provides youth with medically accurate, age-appropriate information about contraception, STI prevention, and local sexual and reproductive health services.”

Duke University is not fighting this battle alone. U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee, a Democrat who represents North Carolina’s 4th District, wrote to the Trump administration demanding the funding be reinstated.

“I requested the grant to be reinstated because we should always be fighting for positive health outcomes for every single American, and that includes reproductive health,” Foushee wrote in a statement. “The Trump Administration’s attacks on this grant program is an arbitrary, political decision that ignores the continued success of teen pregnancy prevention efforts.”

In the meantime, the project team is trying to get other federal grants to make up for its loss of funding. On July 23, applications were due for a new grant with modifications to teen pregnancy prevention teachings.

Some parts of the new grant were “difficult to swallow,” Whetten said. “We did wonder about whether we should apply because if we do this, we need to do it right.”

Ultimately, Duke applied for the new grant and is also in the process of applying for a second one focusing on sexual risk avoidance, Whetten said.

If Duke’s teen pregnancy prevention program cannot continue, Whetten anticipates an increase in STI and teen pregnancy rates, more stigma and confusion around sexuality and more forceful sexual encounters.

Whetten applied for an internal grant at Duke to keep employees on until September 30 — extending their 60-day termination notice until when the next batch of funding, if approved, would begin. Everyone on the team has agreed to stay through this date, Whetten added.

“If we are not funded,” Whetten said, “then we’re done.”

This story was originally published July 28, 2026 at 12:38 PM with the headline “Duke University program faces layoffs after Trump admin cuts teen pregnancy grant.”