RFK Jr.’s HHS Is Under Fire After a Judge Discovered the Agency Based Its New Policy on Scientific Studies That Do Not Actually Exist
Fake studies to push for abstinence?
A federal judge has slammed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), currently led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after discovering that the agency based its new teen pregnancy prevention policy on scientific studies that do not appear to exist. According to Newsweek, in a ruling issued August 19, 2026, District Judge Christopher R. Cooper issued a preliminary injunction that blocks parts of the Trump administration’s massive overhaul of the federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.
This is a shocking situation because the court found that the HHS department, which is supposed to be grounded in solid, peer-reviewed science, leaned on what the judge described as a hallmark of AI-generated citations. The core of the issue stems from a lawsuit filed in July by a coalition including local governments in Minnesota and Washington, along with reproductive health organizations like Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.
These groups challenged the agency after it shifted grant priorities toward an abstinence-focused approach and a concept called body literacy. The plaintiffs argued that these changes were a major step away from the long-standing, evidence-based methods that the program has supported for years.
When Judge Cooper dug into the documentation provided by the agency, he found major red flags
The judge noted that the notices regarding body literacy referenced public health studies that either could not be located or did not actually support the claims they were cited for. The judge specifically pointed to expert testimony showing that out of seven articles cited in the notices, two appeared to be entirely fabricated, and three others were seemingly misattributed to the wrong journals.
The department has run into trouble over the same issue before. Back in 2025, the agency’s Make America Healthy Again report also contained references to articles that did not exist and featured multiple citation errors. It appears to be a recurring problem where technology is being used to generate content that lacks the basic human oversight needed for something as important as public health policy.
According to the Washington Post, the judge highlighted this in his opinion. He noted that there seem to be no existing pregnancy prevention curricula that truly center on body literacy and the other new requirements the agency tried to impose.
The TPP has always aimed to support research-backed measures
The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, or TPP, was originally created by Congress in 2010 to provide funding for medically accurate and age-appropriate endeavors. The whole point was to support initiatives that have been proven through actual research to reduce teen pregnancy, which has historically included both abstinence education and education about contraception.
The Trump administration’s recent overhaul sought to change that by requiring applicants to incorporate sexual risk avoidance. The parties involved in the case agreed is just another term for an abstinence-focused approach.
The new guidance also pushed for instruction on topics like fertility awareness, reproductive health, and the potential risks linked to contraception, while encouraging programs to promote marriage and long-term family formation. As part of this shift, the administration terminated dozens of existing grants, claiming that the previous projects no longer aligned with the current agency priorities.
Judge Cooper found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in showing that this policy was arbitrary and capricious. He pointed out that while abstinence-only education might be appropriate for some groups, the agency failed to provide any explanation or evidence to support its across-the-board mandate that only abstinence strategies be pursued.
The data helps break down why the TPP is significant
Teen birth rates in the United States have fallen by roughly two-thirds since the program began in 2010. For example, in Mississippi, the birth rate for females aged 15 to 19 dropped from 38 per 1,000 in 2014 to 22.8 in 2024. Similar declines were seen in states like Arkansas, California, and Massachusetts.
Despite these massive improvements, the topic remains politically charged. Earlier this year, Katie Miller, the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, posted on X that hormonal birth control is killing population growth and stated that our biological destiny is to have babies.
The legal battle is far from over, but for now, the judge has ordered a temporary halt to the implementation of the new funding notices. The HHS has maintained its standard position of not commenting on ongoing litigation.
It is a striking example of what happens when policy-making gets disconnected from real-world, verified science. When you have a federal agency responsible for the health of the nation, you expect the research backing their decisions to be bulletproof. Instead, we are looking at a situation where the foundational evidence for these changes appears to be little more than digital fabrication.
(Featured image: Gage Skidmore)
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