In Deanda v. Becerra, (ND TX, Dec, 8, 20222), a Texas federal district court held that a Texas statute which protects parental rights to consent to a minor's medical care applies to all Title X grantees in Texas. Title X of the Public Health Service Act provides for grants to entities offering family planning services. Plaintiff, a Christian raising his daughters in accordance with Christian teachings that require unmarried children to refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage, contends that the Department of Health and Human Services is not monitoring grantees to ensure that they obtain parental consent to providing contraceptives to minors. The court rejected defendant's claim that Title X pre-empts Texas law on parental rights. It went on to hold that parents have a federal constitutional right to control the medical care of their minor children, and this includes the right to consent to contraception. The court said in part:
Contraception is a serious matter - both medically and for parents' rights to control the upbringing and education of their children. Several popular methods of birth control carry serious side effects. The courts that have denied parental consent rights apparently presume contraceptive drugs are "no big deal." ...
[O]mitting parental consent gives insufficient weight to the undesirability of teenage promiscuity.
