Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty
Texas Gov. Greg Abbottis instructing state health agencies to begin investigating parents who are allowing their transgender children to get gender-affirming surgeries, calling it a form of “child abuse.”
Much likethe whistleblower laws in Abbott’s ban on abortions, he is asking “licensed professionals” and “members of the general public” to report any parents of minors who are getting “elective procedures for gender transitioning.” Abbottsaid in a letterTuesday that he is authorizing Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate “any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas.”
Abbott’s letter followedan opinion letterfrom Texas' Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday in which Paxton said that providing services like hormone-suppressing drugs “can legally constitute child abuse” under Texas' family code.
Abbott said thatthose found in violationwill face criminal charges, though it’s not clear if he and Paxton can force the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents of trans kids for “child abuse.” In Texas' Harris County, which contains Houston, the elected attorney who oversees their protective services said that they will not enforce Abbott’s instructions and said in a statement that they “are ignoring medical professionals and intentionally misrepresenting the law to the detriment of transgender children and their families.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty
Trans and human rights groups decried Abbott’s letter, saying that it will cause fear and misinformation.
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And major medical organizations such as theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics, theAmerican Medical Associationand theAmerican Psychological Associationhave said that gender-affirming medical care is a medically-necessary service for transgender kids.
The White House condemned Abbott’s instructionsin a statement to theDallas Morning Newson Wednesday.
“Conservative officials in Texas and other states across the country should stop inserting themselves into health care decisions that create needless tension between pediatricians and their patients,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the deputy principal press secretary for the White House, told the outlet. “No parent should face the agony of a politician standing in the way of accessing life-saving care for their child.”
source: people.com
