Birth Control Access, Parental Rights Collide in Fifth Circuit

A lawsuit to be argued in the Fifth Circuit on Nov. 6 that sits at the intersection between minors’ reproductive health and parents’ rights could lead the US Supreme Court to examine at least one of those issues.

Reproductive rights advocates see the case as a stepping stone on their opponents’ way to eliminating a privacy right in accessing birth control that dates to the Supreme Court’s 1965 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut.

It’s part of a “clear effort to curtail people’s right to control their own bodies,” said Robin Summers, vice-president and senior counsel at the National Family ...