The Biden Administration is advocating for a policy that encourages taxpayer-funded family planning offices to privately discuss sexual matters with minors and discreetly deliver contraceptives to them without the knowledge or approval of their parents. Produced by the Reproductive Health National Training Center, this policy encourages adult professionals to ask young individuals if they’re alone before initiating any conversation about sex. The proposed policy is facing resistance from conservative organizations and parents who argue that they have the right to know if the government is aiding minors in engaging in sexual activities by providing them with contraceptives.
The document specifically instructs the recipients of Title X, a federal program that provides contraception for family planning, to conduct sex-related telehealth consultations with minors while ensuring their parents are unaware. The guidelines for conducting these consultations include ensuring minors’ safety during the conversation, determining suitable locations for these discussions, and delivering contraceptives without parental knowledge.
A crucial part of these guidelines is ensuring that adolescent patients understand their rights and protections. If a parent is present during these consultations, Title X grantees should attempt to have them leave the room or, failing that, instruct the teen to move to another room or use headphones to maintain privacy.
Family planning clinics have devised methods such as mail delivery, curbside pickup, and mobile vans to discreetly deliver prescriptions and supplies to youth. The document encourages healthcare providers to withhold information about minors’ sexual activities and contraceptive use from their parents. This effort, as Ruth Institute founder Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, explains, is part of a longstanding trend to proliferate the ideology of the sexual revolution.
Family advocates have long tried to eliminate government-imposed barriers that prevent parents from being involved in their unemancipated minors’ decisions. Rep. Ernest Istook, in 1997, attempted to require parental consent before federally funded facilities could offer birth control to minors, but the proposal was defeated.
In a recent breakthrough, parents secured a victory in a federal courtroom. A parent sued Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, arguing that Title X’s confidentiality guidelines infringe upon parents’ rights. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that the secretive administration of the Title X program violates parents’ constitutional rights to direct their children’s upbringing. However, the Biden Administration, backed by the attorneys general of 24 states and the District of Columbia, appealed the decision.
Parental involvement is crucial to help children and adolescents avoid harmful behaviors such as sexual risk behaviors and drug use. Research shows that sexually active teens are more likely to suffer from depression, addiction, and suicidal ideation. Therefore, communication barriers between children and their parents, especially amid a mental health crisis among American teens, are not beneficial.
Sexual activity also raises the risk of physical health impacts. Hormonal contraceptives and long-acting reversible contraceptives offered by Title X, which can potentially be abortifacients, are now being distributed by Planned Parenthood, which may refer visitors for abortions.
Pro-family advocates argue that the guidelines are aligned with the Biden administration’s attempt to have unrelated adults guide minors on sexual issues, rather than their parents. They contend that it’s the family’s responsibility to raise a child, not a collective, and criticize the Biden administration for seemingly promoting an approach focused on self-destruction and death.
