Gregory Wayne Abbott (born November 13, 1957) is an American attorney who has served as the 48th governor of Texas since January 20, 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Abbott previously served as the 50th attorney general of Texas from 2002 to 2015. He is the third governor of any U.S. state to permanently use a wheelchair. He is also the first disabled governor in Texas history.
Last week Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate anyone providing or enabling transgender children to receive certain medically-necessary care, claiming it legally falls under the state’s definition of child abuse.
A lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Lambda Legal claims the agency has already opened at least one investigation into a parent with a transgender daughter.
That mother works for the very agency now investigating her, and she has been placed on administrative leave, The New York Times reports.
Abbott, facing a difficult re-election battle, used a legal opinion authored by his attorney general, Ken Paxton – who is facing an even more challenging re-election campaign – to order DFPS to perform the investigations.