TEXAS — A new lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton challenges a longtime federal program that provides contraception to people regardless of age, immigration status or income. 

Title X was established in 1970 and was designed to provide birth control and family planning to people who couldn't otherwise afford it. Texas is among a handful of states that require parental consent before teenagers can get birth control. Title X, as Spectrum News partner the Texas Tribune recently pointed out, has been the exception to this. 

However, that changed in 2022 when a federal judge in Amarillo ruled that Title X violates parents' rights. The ruling was later upheld by the conservative  5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Texas is now the only state that requires its Title X clinics to have parental consent prior to providing teens with contraceptives. 

“By attempting to force Texas healthcare providers to offer contraceptives to children without parental consent, the Biden Administration continues to prove they will do anything to implement their extremist agenda—even undermine the Constitution and violate the law,” Paxton wrote in a news release announcing the lawsuit. 

Paxton says the Biden administration's agency rule forbids Title X projects from obtaining parental consent in violation of the aforementioned courts' rulings. He's seeking to get the agency rule thrown out and a permanent injunction against its enforcement. 

Proponents, the Texas Tribune noted, point out that Texas doesn't require sexual education and that Title X has been a "lifeline" for some Texas teens, stating that some parents become violent when their children discuss sexual topics. 

The lawsuit names the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Secretary Xavier Becerra and other members of the Biden administration.