Federal grant funding to Planned Parenthood cut over sexual explicit materials

The Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services has terminated federal grant funding to Planned Parenthood California Central Coast — the nonprofit that serves San Luis Obispo and five other Central Coast communities — as part of a sweeping cancellation of teen pregnancy prevention grants across the country. The decision, which CalCoastNews first reported locally, adds another layer of financial pressure on an organization that has already absorbed significant federal funding losses over the past year.

What HHS Did — and Why

In late June 2026, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) sent termination notices to 53 of the 67 organizations holding Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program grants — cutting roughly $67 million in federal funding two years before those grants were set to expire, according to Stateline and The Hill.

The termination letters cited a specific rationale: after a content review, OASH concluded that some curricula used by grantees "normalize adolescent sexual activity and are not age appropriate, as they contain overly sexually explicit or pornographic content that is not necessary to achieve the TPP program's statutory mission," according to a letter obtained by the Daily Signal and reported by multiple national outlets.

HHS told grantees the grants were terminated due to "misalignment with agency priority, specifically normalizing sexual activity for minors," according to NPR, which obtained a list of terminations. The cuts hit universities, community nonprofits, and city and state health departments across more than two dozen states.

Planned Parenthood California Central Coast Named as a Recipient

Planned Parenthood California Central Coast (PPCCC) was explicitly named among the terminated grantees, alongside organizations including the Wisconsin Department of Health, the Maryland Department of Health, and multiple other Planned Parenthood affiliates. PPCCC operates six health centers serving San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Thousand Oaks, and Oxnard, according to CalCoastNews.

HHS specifically cited PPCCC's use of the Love Notes curriculum, a program aimed at teens ages 14 to 19, as the basis for the termination. According to reporting by the Daily Signal cited by multiple outlets, the curriculum includes a scenario in which one teen attempts to pressure another into sexual activity, as well as a celebrity interview discussing exposure to graphic pornographic content beginning at age 11. PPCCC did not respond to the Daily Signal's request for comment, according to Breitbart's account of the original reporting.

According to PPCCC's own HHS grantee profile, the organization held a Tier 1 "Replication of Evidence-Based Programs" grant awarded for the 2023–2028 cycle, with annual funding listed at $798,640 from that particular grant. CalCoastNews reported, citing the organization's tax filings, that PPCCC receives more than $2 million per year in total grant funding.

A Broader Pattern of Funding Pressure on the Central Coast

This latest cut doesn't occur in isolation. PPCCC has been navigating a series of federal funding disruptions over the past year. In early 2026, the Santa Barbara Independent reported that Central Coast clinics had been shorted roughly $17 million — about half their operating budget — after the federal government blocked Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood providers following passage of the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."

In response to those Medicaid cuts, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation in February approving $90 million in emergency state funding to backfill losses at more than 100 Planned Parenthood clinics statewide. Senate President Pro Tempore Monique Limón — a Santa Barbara-based lawmaker who championed the bill — helped fast-track the allocation. According to the Courthouse News Service, Limón noted that Planned Parenthood's California centers had been losing over $1.1 million per day since the Big Beautiful Bill passed.

PPCCC's bilingual community health educators deliver sex education and reproductive health information to teens, adults, and families throughout San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties. The organization also runs multiple curricula in local schools and community settings, including the LiFT program — a family-based course bringing teens ages 13–19 and their parents together — and its own internally developed comprehensive sex ed curriculum aligned with California's Healthy Youth Act.

The Administration's Pivot: New Grants, New Priorities

HHS did not simply cut the funding and walk away. The agency simultaneously announced two new grant opportunities to redirect the money with different priorities attached. One, titled "Replicating Effective Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs," will award a total of $63.4 million to up to 54 grantees, according to The Hill. A second opportunity will provide approximately $8.3 million for nine awards focused on rigorous evaluation of teen pregnancy interventions, per the official grant listing on grants.gov.

Both new opportunities require applicants to pass an "alignment review" to ensure their programs meet agency priorities — language that Bloomberg Law noted echoes earlier HHS guidance that was previously vacated by a federal court. The new grants emphasize "body literacy," parental rights, and medically accurate content, and explicitly exclude programs promoting content that normalizes sexual activity for minors.

Whether PPCCC or similar organizations could qualify under the new criteria is unclear. Stateline reported that a reproductive health policy expert expects the grant terminations to be challenged in court — a scenario with direct precedent: during Trump's first term in 2017, HHS attempted a nearly identical wholesale cancellation of TPP grants, and legal advocacy organization Democracy Forward won a permanent injunction after courts ruled the action violated agency regulations.

What's Next for SLO-Area Teens and Families

For San Luis Obispo County residents, the immediate practical question is whether PPCCC's teen education programming will continue uninterrupted — and who, if anyone, will fill the gap if it cannot. The organization's website continues to list its full slate of youth education programs, and PPCCC has publicly pledged to keep its doors open despite the ongoing wave of federal cuts.

Senators including Patty Murray (D-WA) have called on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reinstate the grants, arguing in a letter co-signed by 18 senators that the terminations contradict Congressional intent and deprive teens of proven programs. The letter notes that Congress appropriated $101 million for teen pregnancy prevention in the fiscal year 2026 spending bill, with 75 percent directed toward replicating programs proven to reduce teen pregnancy.

Locally, the cuts arrive as PPCCC continues to serve as one of the primary providers of reproductive health care for low-income residents on the Central Coast — a role that extends well beyond education to include contraception, STI testing, and cancer screenings. With federal funding streams increasingly uncertain, Sacramento's willingness to step in with state dollars has so far kept services operating. How long that bridge holds remains the key question for the communities PPCCC serves from San Luis Obispo to Oxnard.