AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a major victory against the Biden-Harris Administration after suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) for unlawfully adopting a rule to nullify state laws that secure parents’ rights to consent to their children’s medical care.
In July 2024, Attorney General Paxton sued HHS for conditioning the receipt of federal funds under Title X of the federal Public Health Service Act on the requirement that health entities provide contraceptives to minors without parental consent. This requirement violated State parental consent laws, and multiple courts had previously held that Title X projects must comply with Texas’s parental consent laws when dispensing prescription contraceptives to minors.
Now, the Biden Administration has conceded it will not even attempt to “enforce the challenged regulation in Texas.” This effectively vacates the unlawful rule in Texas, and Attorney General Paxton filed a notice of dismissal. This result ensures that Texas health entities will not be forced to violate state law under threat of losing Title X funding.
“The Biden-Harris Administration threatened to withhold taxpayer money to coerce healthcare providers into violating state law and providing contraceptives to children without any parental oversight,” said Attorney General Paxton. “We won a complete and total victory, forcing the outgoing administration to abandon its illegal agenda.”
To read the filing, click here.
