The Trump administration just dropped a bombshell by slashing jobs at the Office of Population Affairs (OPA), right in the middle of a Democrat-triggered government shutdown.
Breitbart reported that the move, which has sent shockwaves through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has gutted an agency tasked with managing reproductive and adolescent health programs, leaving its future in limbo.
For over 50 years, the OPA has operated under HHS, focusing on issues like teen pregnancy, family planning, and sterilization, as outlined on its own website.
During this Democrat-led shutdown, the Trump administration initiated widespread layoffs at the OPA, with reports indicating that nearly all staff were locked out of their government emails and computers by last Friday.
By Wednesday afternoon, shell-shocked employees inquiring about their status were bluntly informed by human resources that they were being cut due to a “reduction in force.”
The timing couldn’t be worse, as this upheaval leaves critical health programs hanging by a thread, though sources familiar with the matter insist that some OPA initiatives will persist despite the cuts.
On Wednesday, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction to halt the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers during the shutdown, but by evening, it was still unclear which OPA employees were protected.
Adding to the confusion, HHS Press Secretary Emily Hilliard confirmed on Thursday that all affected HHS staff had been classified as non-essential by their divisions. Well, if they’re non-essential, one wonders why we had them in the first place.
Meanwhile, the administration’s broader agenda is coming into focus, with a proposal to eliminate the Title X family planning program in its 2026 budget blueprint, as reported by The New York Times.
Under new directives, the OPA has been instructed to pivot toward addressing infertility and the declining U.S. birthrate, a move that aligns with conservative priorities over progressive social experiments.
Several sources familiar with these efforts suggest the administration will likely continue infertility initiatives through a different office, signaling a potential end to the OPA as we know it.
Let’s not pretend the previous Biden administration’s approach—using OPA to push abortions via Title X and even supporting sex changes for minors—wasn’t controversial. A recalibration was overdue, though the execution here raises eyebrows.
Critics of the layoffs are sounding the alarm, with Jessica Marcella, former deputy assistant secretary for population affairs under Biden, warning, “The high-quality, confidential care they have relied on may disappear overnight.”
Marcella also added, “If there’s no one there to run it, then functionally the program ceases to exist.” While her concern for care access is valid, one might ask if the OPA’s prior focus truly served the nation’s long-term needs or was just a narrow ideological agenda.
At the end of the day, the Trump administration’s bold—if chaotic—move to downsize the OPA during a shutdown reflects a deeper clash of values over what federal health programs should prioritize.
The debate over reproductive health versus family-building initiatives isn’t going away, and neither side will cede ground easily. But for now, displaced staff and uncertain programs are the collateral damage in this bureaucratic battle.