Texas Governor and AG Declare Trans Medical Care Child Abuse and Target Parents
letter to DFPS.In 2021 the Texas legislature tried and failed to pass S.B. 1646, a bill that would codify any gender-affirming care, including hormone replacement therapy and surgical procedure for minors as child abuse under state law, making it illegal for parents to seek medical care for children experiencing gender dysphoria.While the bill, fortunately, failed in committee, that didn’t stop Gov.
Abbott from seeking workarounds to continue targeting these parents.Earlier this week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declared (in a non-binding opinion) that sex-change procedures for minors constitute child abuse according to state law, including both gender reassignment surgery and puberty-blocking hormones.“There is no doubt that these procedures are ‘abuse’ under Texas law, and thus must be halted,” Paxton said in a statement. “I’ll do everything I can to protect against those who take advantage of and harm young Texans.”According to the statement, his main reasoning is that gender-confirming medical care may lead to trans people not being able to procreate. “Any discussion of sterilization procedures in the context of minor children must, accordingly, consider the fundamental right that is at stake: the right to procreate.
Given the uniquely vulnerable nature of children, and the clear dangers of sterilization demonstrated throughout history,” he wrote.Citing Paxton’s opinion, Abbott said that “it is already against the law to subject Texas children to a wide variety of elective procedures for gender transitioning, including reassignment surgeries that can cause sterilizations, mastectomies, removals of otherwise healthy body parts, and administration of puberty-blocking drugs or supraphysiologic doses of.
