What Is Gender-Affirming Care? Gov. Greg Abbott Asks Agencies to Investigate 'Child Abuse'

newsweek.com:

Greg Abbott, signed a letter stating that a number of gender-affirming procedures in children are considered to be child abuse under Texas law.In a letter signed on Tuesday, Abbott told Jaime Masters, commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, that the state's Office of the Attorney General held the opinion that "a number of so-called 'sex change' procedures constitute child abuse under existing Texas law."Abbott then directed the department to "conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas."The White House criticized the move, with a spokesperson describing it as an "attack on loving parents who seek medical care for their transgender children," according to a statement to ABC News.The Texas Family Code defines a "child" as a person under the age of 18.Gender-affirming care is a wide umbrella term referring to medical or social care designed to help affirm someone's gender identity—their internal experience of gender as a male, female, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum.

This gender identity may be different to someone's biological sex, which can cause distress.A number of interventions may be deemed gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy, which typically begins at age 16 and involves the use of feminizing or masculizing hormones like estrogen or testosterone, respectively, which allow the body to develop physical changes to align people to their gender identity.Other steps may not involve medical intervention at all, but rather social interventions that might aim to educate or encourage certain activities or the use of different clothing and pronouns.Gender-affirming care also encompasses.