Federal Court Upholds Texas Parents’ Right to Consent in Children’s Access to Birth Control

A federal appellate court has upheld a Texas law prohibiting clinics across the state from giving teenagers birth control pills or devices without proof that their parents are in agreement. In an opinion handed down on Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously found that the state’s parental consent requirement does not violate what’s known as Title X, a federal law that provides funding for birth control services. “We hold that Title X does not preempt Texas’s law,” Judge Kyle Duncan wrote for the court, noting that the two laws share a common stated goal of “encourag[ing] family participation” in their children’s medical decisions....