Texas officials are challenging a recent order from President Biden’s administration that would allow schools to distribute contraception to teenagers without parental consent.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday that he will sue the Biden administration over 2021 changes to Title X guidelines that ban parental consent requirements for contraceptive services.
“By forcing health care providers in Texas to provide contraception to children without parental consent, the Biden Administration continues to demonstrate its willingness to subvert the Constitution and violate the law to implement its radical agenda,” Paxton said in a statement.
Trump has said he would “never support placing restrictions on birth control or other contraception.”
Women take the following tablets from their monthly pack of contraceptives: (Annette Riedl/Photo Alliance via Getty Images)
The Texas legal battle began when U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmarik ruled in December 2021 that Title X, a federal program that provides free and confidential contraception to anyone regardless of age, income or immigration status, violates parental rights and violates state and federal law.
The lawsuit was argued by former Texas Attorney General Jonathan Mitchell on behalf of the father, Alex DeAnda, who argued that he was “raising his daughters according to Christian teachings on sexuality, which require unmarried children to practice abstinence and abstain from sexual intercourse until marriage.”
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Judge Kacsmalik, a Trump appointee, had previously ruled that parents must be informed when providing contraception to children under the age of 18. (Senate Judiciary Committee via The Associated Press)
In response, the federal government updated its guidelines to state that Title X projects “may not require parental or guardian consent to provide services to minors, and Title X project staff may not notify parents or guardians before or after a minor requests and/or receives Title X family planning services.”
Paxton is now seeking a permanent injunction blocking the rule, arguing it contradicts a federal court ruling.
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Paxton and his wife Angela were photographed outside the Supreme Court. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Paxton filed the lawsuit in federal court in Amarillo, and the case will likely be heard by Judge Kacsmarik, who has previously ruled that parents must be informed about providing birth control to their children.
