How Texas teens lost access to confidential contraception

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Federal Title X clinics do not require parental consent for birth control — except in Texas, where a lawsuit upended the longstanding program.

Teenagers come to Access Esperanza’s family planning clinics in the Rio Grande Valley for birth control . They leave with a full reproductive life plan.

“You just see their shoulders slump and we know this is someone who doesn’t feel they can talk to their mom and dad about this topic,” Gonzalez said. “Some parents want to pretend it isn’t happening. We’ve seen parents get violent when their child talks about being sexually active.” Mitchell declined to comment and declined to make his client available. But in the original lawsuit, Mitchell explained that Deanda was “raising each of his daughters in accordance with Christian teaching on matters of sexuality, which requires unmarried children to practice abstinence and refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage.”

In the Deanda lawsuit, Mitchell argued that encouraging family participation represents the “floor,” the minimum a clinic must do to comply with regulations. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services argued that it is, instead, the “ceiling”: The most a clinic can do is encourage family participation, so requiring consent would be a violation.

Family Circle of Care has always emphasized parental involvement, Porter said. She counsels teens on how to broach the subject with their parents, and once they are all in the exam room together, she helps mediate the tense moments these conversations bring up for everyone. Project Vida, a federally qualified health center in El Paso, has seen a 50% drop in teens making appointments for contraception, chief medical Dr. Luis Garza said. Birth control appointments can be a critical entry point to the health care system for teens, where they can get screened for sexually transmitted diseases and discuss mental health issues and primary care needs.

The other two judges, both appointed by President George W. Bush, agreed with Duncan’s assessment. The panel ruled that Title X clinics in Texas can — and, in fact, must — comply with both the federal regulation and Texas’ parental consent requirements. “The danger of putting it in front of the Supreme Court is their anti-agency, anti-federal government attitude right now,” Grossman said. “I would hate for this to get caught up in that somehow.”

Texas Politics Texas Policy Texas Government Birth Control Health Care Sex Education State Government Reproductive Health Courts

 

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