Trump Administration Dismantles Office of Population Affairs in Layoffs

In October 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services conducted mass layoffs at the Office of Population Affairs, which focuses on reproductive health, family planning, and other population topics. According to the New York Times, almost every employee at the agency was locked out of their government email, wholly decimating the office The layoffs were reported to have occurred in response to the Fall 2025 government shutdown. According to an October 29, 2025 congressional letter to Secretary Kennedy, all but one of OPA's 50 employees lost access to their government email accounts on October 10 and received confirmation five days later that they were subject to a reduction in force; the sole remaining staff member was a U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officer. As of April 2026, OPA had been effectively shut down, with only the single Commissioned Corps officer remaining, and its former chief clinical adviser described the structure for running the national family planning program as having disappeared, with Title X grantees facing funding uncertainty as existing five-year project periods expired on March 31, 2026.