About the Pregnancy Assistance Fund Program

The Office of Population Affairs' (OPA) Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF) program was a $25 million per year competitive grant program for states and tribes that aimed to improve the health, educational, social, and economic outcomes of expectant and parenting teens, women, fathers, and their families. The PAF program was authorized and appropriated by the Affordable Care Act for 10 years from fiscal year (FY) 2009 through FY2019 (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 2010).

Beginning in 2010, OPA provided funding to 32 states, including the District of Columbia, and seven tribal organizations. PAF-funded states and tribes used funds to:

• Establish, maintain, or operate expectant and parenting student services in high schools, community service centers, and/or institutions of higher education
• Improve services for pregnant women who are victims of domestic violence
• Increase public awareness and education concerning the services available to expectant and parenting teens, women, fathers, and their families

As a result of the PAF Program, close to 110,000 expectant and parenting teens, women, fathers, and their families received a wide range of support services related to personal health, child health, parenting, education, and employment, as well as concrete supports like diapers and baby equipment. Data collected through the PAF performance measures shows that participants of the PAF Program experienced many positive outcomes including reductions in dropping out of high school, improvements in high school graduation, acceptance into institutions of higher education, and reductions in subsequent unintended pregnancies.

To learn more about the grantees, check out the PAF videos on OPA's YouTube channel.