AUSTIN (CBSDFW.COM) – Governor Greg Abbott sent a letter on Tuesday, Feb. 22 to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) directing the agency to investigate any reported instances of minors undergoing sex reassignment procedures or taking hormones as “child abuse.”
This interpretation of the law would also give medical professionals and the general public a “duty to report” any such instances under the penalty of Texas law. The order does not change existing laws, but could potentially change how the DFPS enforces them.
Abbott’s letter comes after the Office of the Attorney General said that a number of sex reassignment procedures and hormone treatments for minors constitute child abuse under Texas law. According to Abbott, the offending treatments include reassignment surgeries, mastectomies, “removals of otherwise healthy body parts,” and administration of puberty-blocking drugs or doses of testosterone or estrogen meant to alter one’s body.
While puberty-blocking drugs and hormones are therapies sometimes available to teens and children, surgery is very rarely ever an option for minors and cases are extremely few and far between.
While Abbott said his order is meant to “protect children from abuse,” critics argue the move is unnecessary and criminalizes a vulnerable group of Texans.
Democratic Texas AG candidate Joe Jaworski tweeted that Abbott’s order was “authoritarian” and a case of “systemic cruelty.” The ACLU of Texas said that “gender-affirming health care is medically necessary, lifesaving care” and characterized Abbott’s order as being part of a “politically motivated misinformation campaign.”
So far, no cases have been filed against anyone related to the use of sex reassignment treatments for minors and it is unclear whether such charges would hold up in court. No court in the country has ever found that sex reassignment treatments constitute child abuse.
from CBS Dallas / Fort Worth https://ift.tt/VedpYNl
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