On Feb. 18, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in Attorney General Opinion No. KP-401 concluded that a number of procedures used to treat gender dysphoria, i.e. assist transgender individuals in their gender transitions, can amount to child abuse under Texas law. The 13-page Opinion states in part:
To the extent that these procedures and treatments could result in sterilization, they would deprive the child of the fundamental right to procreate, which supports a finding of child abuse under the Family Code....
Where, as a factual matter, one of these procedures or treatments cannot result in sterilization, a court would have to go through the process of evaluating, on a case-by-case basis, whether that procedure violates any of the provisions of the Family Code—and whether the procedure or treatment poses a similar threat or likelihood of substantial physical and emotional harm....
To the extent the specific procedures about which you ask may cause mental or emotional injury or physical injury within these provisions, they constitute abuse.
Further, the Legislature has explicitly defined “female genital mutilation” and made such act a state jail felony.... While the Legislature has not elsewhere defined the phrase “genital mutilation”, nor specifically for males of any age, the Legislature’s criminalization of a particular type of genital mutilation supports an argument that analogous procedures that include genital mutilation—potentially including gender reassignment surgeries—could constitute “abuse” under the Family Code’s broad and nonexhaustive examples of child abuse or neglect.
On Feb. 22, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent a letter (full text) to the head of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, instructing them to promptly investigate cases covered by the Attorney General's Opinion. the Governor said in part:
Texas law imposes reporting requirements upon all licensed professionals who have direct contact with children who may be subject to such abuse, including doctors, nurses, and teachers, and provides criminal penalties for failure to report such child abuse.... There are similar reporting requirements and criminal penalties for members of the general public....
Texas law also imposes a duty on DFPS to investigate the parents of a child who is subjected to these abusive gender-transitioning procedures, and on other state agencies to investigate licensed facilities where such procedures may occur.
Washington Post and Axios report on these developments.
