Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, has sued the Biden administration over a longstanding federal program that provides teenagers access to contraception without parental consent, the state’s latest attack against the federal government’s reproductive healthcare policies.

“This suit is likely a preview of where the Texas GOP – and national Republicans – stand on attacking contraception access,” says Mary Ziegler, a professor at University of California, Davis, School of Law and reproductive health expert. “While Republicans say they don’t want to take aim at contraception, this is another sign that this is actually where we’re headed.”

Title X, created in 1970, offers comprehensive family planning and preventive health care services for low-income and uninsured residents. Texas is among a handful of states that require parental consent before a teenager can get birth control – but Title X-funded contraception was the exception. Under the program, minors can receive contraception confidentially.

Texas has the highest repeat teen birth rate and one of strictest abortion bans in the US.

In 2022, US district judge Matthew Kacsmaryk dealt a blow to Title X when he ruled that the program denied Texas father Alexander Deanda’s “fundamental right to control and direct the upbringing of his minor children”. Texas now stands as the only state that requires Title X-funded clinics to mandate parental consent before granting teens birth control.

An appeals court largely upheld Kacsmaryk’s decision in March, finding that Title X does not supersede Texas parental rights law, but left in place a Title X rule that explicitly forbids clinics from requiring parental consent before providing services.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/26/texas-teenage-birth-control-lawsuit