Texas sues Biden over Title X contraception rule that denies parents’ right to know

The Texas attorney general is suing the Biden administration, alleging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) violated a court order requiring notification of parents when distributing birth control to minors.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said that Biden has rewritten the rules under Title X, a family planning law passed in 1970, so that the administration can ignore a court order requiring medical providers to get parental consent before giving birth control drugs to children.

The new Biden rule violates Texas law, which mandates parental approval before undertaking medical care of minors, said a statement by Paxton’s office.

“Previously, a federal district court and a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that Title X projects must comply with Texas’s parental-consent laws when dispensing prescription contraceptives to minors,” said the statement.

In a March decision, the appeals court upheld a previous federal circuit court ruling in Deanda v. Becerra that found “there is nothing in [U.S. law] that purports to preempt state laws requiring parental consent or notification before distributing contraceptive drugs or devices to minors.”  

The Becerra in the case refers to Xavier Becerra, in his official capacity as HHS Secretary. He was narrowly approved as Biden’s Secretary of HHS by a 50-49 vote, in March 2021.  

“Curiously, the President’s candidate to run the Department of Health and Human Services is the famously partisan Attorney General of California. His recent experience in health policy seems largely limited to promoting abortion on-demand and suing groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor who dare to live out their religious convictions,” noted U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell in opposition to Becerra’s appointment.   

Becerra was widely criticized for suing the Catholic nuns, The Little Sisters of the Poor, trying to force them to pay for “sterilization and contraception, including drugs that can cause abortions,” on behalf of the religious order’s employees – and against their religious beliefs. 

The Paxton lawsuit alleges that despite the finding by the Fifth Circuit, the Biden administration promulgated a new rule after Deanda that “instructs” providers to ignore the court.   

The new rule provides:  

“To the extent practical, Title X projects shall encourage family participation. However, Title X projects may not require consent of parents or guardians for the provision of services to minors, nor can any Title X project staff notify a parent or guardian before or after a minor has requested and/or received Title X family planning services.” 

If the state doesn’t comply with the new rules, the federal government will withhold the funding that the state is entitled to under Title X.  

The lawsuit says that Texas receives over $18 million in federal funding from Title X and that in “conditioning federal funding on compliance with the [new rule], the [new rule] purports to preempt Texas’s sovereign interests in the health and safety of its residents and its traditional regulation over family law.”  

The lawsuit by Paxton was filed on behalf of Carmen Robles Frost, “a mother of two daughters under the age of 18,” with Becerra again named as the defendant. 

Ms. Frost is a Christian, and she is raising her daughters in accordance with Christian teaching on matters of sexuality, which requires unmarried children to practice abstinence and refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage, according to the lawsuit.  

In order for her to raise her children in the Christian faith, she must be informed before her children have access to prescription contraception and other family-planning services, which is her right under Texas law.  

But, instead, the Biden administration, driven by extremist ideology, wants to deny parental rights protected under Texas law, said the Attorney General.  

“By attempting to force Texas healthcare providers to offer contraceptives to children without parental consent, the Biden Administration continues to prove they will do anything to implement their extremist agenda – even undermine the Constitution and violate the law,” concluded Paxton’s statement on the suit.