Texas Gov. Abbott asks state CPS to determine if trans surgeries for minors are 'child abuse'
The governor of Texas is asking the state’s family services department to compile a report analyzing whether subjecting children with gender dysphoria to sex reassignment surgeries constitutes child abuse.
Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott wrote a letter to Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Jaime Masters Friday, asking the state official to “issue a determination of whether genital mutilation of a child for purposes of gender transitioning through reassignment surgery constitutes child abuse.”
He noted that the department is “responsible for protecting children from abuse.”
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“Subjecting a child to genital mutilation through reassignment surgery creates a ‘genuine threat of substantial harm from physical injury to the child,’” the governor wrote. “This broad definition of ‘abuse’ should cover a surgical procedure that will sterilize the child, such as orchiectomy or hysterectomy, or remove otherwise healthy body parts, such as penectomy or mastectomy."
"Indeed, Texas already outlaws female genital mutilation of a child, and presumably that also constitutes child abuse," he added.
He urged the department to consider “whether an exception should be made for medically necessary procedures," such as when a child is born with "medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development" or when a child "does not have the normal sex chromosome structure for male or female as determined through genetic testing."
Abbott’s letter comes after the Texas Senate passed a bill that would amend “the definition of abuse of a child” to include “administering or supplying, or consenting to assisting in the administering or supplying of, a puberty suppression prescription drug or cross-sex hormone to a child, other than an intersex child, for the purpose of gender transitioning or gender reassignment.”
Supporters of the legislation alleged that the Republican leadership in the state’s House of Representatives used delay tactics to kill the bill because of pressure from corporate America.
As previously reported, nearly four dozen major companies that do business in Texas wrote a letter in opposition to the measure before the state Senate voted to approve the bill. Signatories to the letter included Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, Dell Technologies, Dow, Facebook, IBM, Levi Strauss & Co, Microsoft, PayPal and United Airlines.
Abbott had hinted at the possibility of using his executive authority to classify gender transitioning as a form of child abuse during a radio interview last month.
Speaking to radio host Mark Davis on July 19, Abbott said that “I have another way of achieving the exact same thing, and it’s about a finished product as we speak right now.”
Davis had pressed Abbott as to why the bill that “would make it illegal to carve up our kids or pump them full of hormones in order to change their sex when they are still minors” was not included on the agenda for a special legislative session the governor called to pass an election integrity bill. Abbott maintained that “the chances of that passing during the session in the House of Representatives was nil.”
When asked if his executive action will ensure that “crazy parents and crazy doctors will not be able to try to turn girls into boys and vice versa in the state of Texas,” Abbott answered in the affirmative. Another state, Arkansas, already passed a law banning the medicalized transitioning of minors over the objections of the state’s Republican governor. The law has been struck down by a federal judge as unconstitutional and litigation continues.
Earlier this year, the CBS program “60 Minutes” profiled individuals who once identified as transgender and had surgery to make their physical characteristics correspond with their chosen gender identity only to regret their decision later in life. All agreed that they did not receive adequate pushback from the medical community when they pursued such surgeries as either children or young adults.
According to the conservative American College of Pediatrics, “the vast majority of children with gender incongruence will outgrow it by young adulthood.”
The organization listed some of the side effects of taking puberty-blocking drugs, including “osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility.” Additionally, cross-sex hormones can put youth “at an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots, and cancers across their lifespan.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
