For Immediate Release: May 1, 2023
Contact: Audrey Sandusky, asandusky@nfprha.org 

NFPRHA Files Amicus Brief Calling on Circuit Court to Reverse Ruling in Deanda v. Becerra  

Washington, DC – Today, the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) submitted an amicus brief on behalf of its members to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the case of Deanda v. Becerra, a challenge against the Title X family planning program’s well-established statutory protection of minors’ ability to seek contraceptive care without parental consent.

The amicus brief urges the Court to recognize the essential need for confidential, voluntary access to contraceptive care for adolescents and reverse the district court ruling.  

“Our brief makes clear that Title X plays a critical role in securing access to high-quality, confidential care for young people and that eviscerating this protection is completely contrary to the purpose of the program to make family planning services and information widely available to those who seek it,” said Clare Coleman, President & CEO of NFPRHA. “The district court’s decision has left adolescent patients without the care they need and rely on in Texas and charts a dangerous course for contraceptive access in this country. It is now up to the higher court to uphold bedrock confidentiality protections unique to Title X and reverse this dangerous decision.”

In December 2022, a US District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued his holding that Title X’s confidentiality protections did not supersede Texas’s parental consent law. The litigation was brought against US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs Jessica Marcella, and the United States.

Read a copy of the brief.

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NFPRHA is a membership organization representing publicly funded family planning providers and administrators nationwide. NFPRHA advances and elevates the importance of family planning in the nation’s health care system and promotes and supports the work of family planning providers and administrators, especially those in the safety net. For more information, visit nationalfamilyplanning.org.