FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 6th, 2025

Contact: Alison Macklin

amacklin@siecus.org

The “One Big Beautiful Bill” 

Following days of talks, the House passed a 2025 reconciliation bill named the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” This bill, should it pass the Senate, would cause permanent damage to reproductive health access for millions of Americans and destroy our foundational components of democracy.  

Among the various cuts and hidden inclusions, the reconciliation bill eliminates the ability for patients to choose their provider by banning the use of Medicaid funds at Planned Parenthood health clinics, bans coverage of gender affirming care, and effectively eliminates Title X Family Planning Program – which is the nation’s only federally funded family planning program. Around 72 million people in the US rely on Medicaid and Title X to help achieve their health goals. The proposed changes would not only limit health care options, but dictate, based on income, who can access basic health care, making it especially dangerous for LGBTQIA+ individuals, youth, people living with HIV, and those already facing systemic barriers to care and housing.  

It is troubling that such a damaging bill was passed by elected officials who didn’t even read it in its entirety, revealing a reckless disregard for the lives and wellbeing of the people they were chosen to represent. 

President’s 2026 Budget  

In alignment with the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the President’s FY26 budget also raises concerns for the future of comprehensive sex education. The budget fails to explicitly name the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program thereby implicitly and illegally threatening its elimination and once again ignores years of research that demonstrates that this type of programming protects and empower young people to have increased positive health outcomes throughout their lives.  

“The administration’s budget reveals either willful ignorance or a troubling inability to grasp its critical role in supporting youth’s sexual health. This omission is not merely an oversight—it follows a dangerous trend that science and fact-based education and programming are to be deprioritized and defunded,” says SIECUS President and CEO, Christine Soyong Harley 

Adding to this blatant disregard for educated and informed practices, is the mislabeling of sexual risk avoidance programs as “sexual risk abstinence,” within the budget document, exposing the false and misleading rebranding efforts by the abstinence only education movement’s strategy of calling their programs “sexual risk avoidance.”  

“While it is refreshing to see that the opposition is finally coming clean regarding this misinformation tactic, such missteps and disregard for science jeopardize the health and wellbeing of our youth and highlight an alarming disconnect between policy decisions and public health realities,” says Harley. 

As this harmful bill moves to the Senate, now is the time to demand our representatives to buckle down and defend sex education and reproductive health by defeating the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”  

Additionally, we must urge members to support the Real Education and Access for Healthy Youth Act of 2025 (REAHYA), which would protect and strengthen funding for these essential programs and ensure that all young people have access to the information and care they need to lead healthy lives regardless of their zip code.  

We are at a critical crossroads. The future of comprehensive sex education and reproductive health access is at stake. Raise your voice. Mobilize your community. Tell your representatives: we deserve facts, care, and freedom. 

Call your Representatives and Senators today by using the US Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

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SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change has served as a leading national voice for sex education since 1964, asserting that sexuality is a fundamental part of being human, one worthy of dignity and respect. Through advocacy, policy, and coalition building, SIECUS advances sex education as a vehicle for social change—where all people receive sex education, are affirmed in their identities, and have the power to make decisions about their own health, pleasure, and wholeness.