Texas child welfare agency officials have started investigating parents of transgender children for possible child abuse charges including one of the agency’s own employees who has a 16-year-old trans daughter.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott ordered the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate reports of ‘gender-transitioning procedures,’ such as puberty-blocking drugs, last Tuesday.
It came a day after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is also a Republican, issued an opinion declaring that such procedures are child abuse under existing Texas law.
One of the agency’s employees, who has a transgender daughter, was visited by agency officials on Friday, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of the woman, identified as Jane Doe, by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and LGBTQ civil rights group Lambda Legal.
Texas child welfare agency officials have begun investigating parents of transgender children for possible child abuse charges in accordance with an ordered given last week by Governor Greg Abbott
One of the agency’s employees, who has a transgender daughter, was among the first to be investigated. Above, a group of health care workers protested the governor’s order at the state Capitol building on Tuesday
The employee has since sought legal action in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and LGBTQ civil rights group Lambda Legal
The court filing seeks to block the agency’s request for medical records and challenge the constitutionality of the governor’s order
The employee, who works on the review of reports of abuse and neglect, was placed on administrative leave the day after Abbott’s order and has since been asked by agency officials to turn over medical records related to her child, who was identified in the lawsuit as Mary Doe.
The court filing seeks to block the agency’s request for medical records and challenge the constitutionality of both the investigation and the governor’s order.
“We are terrified for Mary’s health and well-being, and for our family,’ Jane Doe wrote in a declaration filed with the lawsuit. ‘I feel betrayed by my state and the agency for whom I work. Not providing Mary with the medically necessary health care that she needs is not an option for us.”
Jane Doe, who refused to voluntarily turn over her daughter’s medical records, spoke to her supervisor at DFPS the day after Abbott issued his order, the lawsuit reads. It is unclear if she disclosed any information about her transgender child, but that same day she was placed on administrative leave.
‘The issuance of the Paxton Opinion and the Abbott Letter, along with DFPS’s implementation of these, has terrorized the Doe family and inflicted ongoing and irreparable harm,’ her lawsuit reads.
Mary Doe has long been under the care of Dr. Megan Mooney, a licensed psychologist in Houston who is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, the document reads.
Mooney diagnosed Mary with gender dysphoria and referred the family to other medical professionals who confirmed the diagnosis, according to the lawsuit.
Transgender advocacy groups protested against the governor’s order at the Texas Capitol building on Tuesday
A group of religious advocates joined the protest to show support
Gender dysphoria is designated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders as someone’s “marked incongruence between their experienced or expressed gender and the one they were assigned at birth.”
It could lead to ‘symptoms of depression and anxiety, substance use disorders, a negative sense of well-being and poor self-esteem, and an increased risk of self-harm and suicidality,’ and could be treated with psychiatric support, hormonal therapy and surgical therapy, ‘depending on the individual case and patient needs,’ according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Following Mary’s diagnosis, her doctors recommended that she be provided with medical care that has included prescription puberty-delaying medication and hormone therapy ‘to initiate puberty consistent with her female gender,’ the lawsuit reads.
‘Mary was worried about having to undergo a puberty that would result in permanent physical characteristics not in alignment with her female gender. Jane and John observed how the prospect of beginning this puberty caused Mary significant distress and exacerbated her dysphoria,’ the lawsuit reads.
‘Being able to be affirmed as who she is, including through the course of treatment prescribed by her doctors, has brought Mary significant relief and allowed her to thrive,’ it adds.
Abbott issued the order in a letter on Tuesday to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
Abbott wrote in his letter that ‘it is already against the law to subject Texas children to a wide variety of elective procedures for gender transitioning, including reassignment surgeries that can cause sterilization, mastectomies, removals of otherwise healthy body parts, and administration of puberty-blocking drugs or supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or estrogen.’
The order requires DFPS to ‘conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures.’
The letter notes that doctors, nurses, and teachers are all mandated reporters who must report suspected child abuse, nothing that there are ‘criminal penalties for failure to report such child abuse.’
It is unclear if Abbott’s order would persist under judicial scrutiny and some Texas prosecutors have already rejected the notion of pursuing child abuse cases against parents, while state agencies have remained largely silent on how they interpret the new guidance.
Legislation has been introduced in over 20 states seeking to ban gender-affirming procedures for teenagers, according to the New York Times. No such bills have made it through their respective legislative sessions, however, including one in Texas seeking to redefine child abuse to include gender-affirming treatment for transgender children.
Last summer, Abbott directed the state’s protective services agency to investigate whether such medical procedures would constitute child abuse.
Around the same time, the agency bowed to pressure from one of Abbott’s Republican primary opponents, Don Huffines, by removing a list of LGBTQ resources and a suicide prevention hotline from its website.
exas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is also a Republican, issued an opinion last week declaring that certain transitioning procedures are child abuse under existing Texas law
The move, first reported by the Houston Chronicle, came when Huffines attacked the governor online for “promoting transgender sexual policies to Texas youth.”
Adri Pérez, policy strategist of the Texas ACLU, accused the governor and attorney general of issuing their statements about transgender children to pander to their party ahead of an upcoming primary election.
“No family should have to fear being torn apart because they are supporting their trans child,” Pérez said in a statement to the New York Times. “A week before an election, Gov. Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a partisan political attack that isn’t rooted in the needs of families.”
Paul Castillo, senior counsel at Lambda Legal, told the New York Times that the two Republicans were “joining a politically motivated misinformation campaign with no consideration of medical science and seem determined to criminalize parents seeking to care and provide for their kids.’
He added: ‘Gender-affirming care for the treatment of gender dysphoria is medically necessary care, full stop.’
The lawsuit quotes a number of child advocacy groups that have spoken out against the governor’s order, including Prevent Child Abuse America, which said in a statement that ‘providing necessary and adequate medical care to your child is not child abuse.’
‘Therefore, PCA America opposes legislation and laws that would deny healthcare access to any child, regardless of their gender identity. Such laws threaten the safety and security of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens—children and youth,’ the statement adds.
The Biden administration also responded furiously to the Texas order, with a White House spokesperson calling it needless and dangerous.
‘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,’ White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told the Dallas Morning News.
‘No parent should face the agony of a politician standing in the way of accessing life-saving care for their child,’ added Jean-Pierre.
Admiral Rachel L. Levine, a transgender woman who is Biden’s assistant secretary for health also slammed Abbott’s move.
‘Our nation’s leading pediatricians support evidence-based, gender affirming care for transgender young people. HHS stands with transgender youth and their medical providers,’ Levine said in a statement to the Morning News.
The officials’ moves have been lauded by other Texas groups. “Minors are prohibited from purchasing paint, cigarettes, alcohol, or even getting a tattoo. We cannot allow minors or their parents to make life-altering decisions on body-mutilating procedures and irreversible hormonal treatments,’ Jonathan Covey, policy director for the group Texas Values, told the New York Times last week.
And Abbott’s Republican allies in the Texas legislature praised his move. ‘This (Paxton) opinion means nothing if it’s not enforced,’ said Republican state Rep. Matt Schaefer to the Statesman.
‘The truth is, though, that we need a special session immediately to address this now that we have the backing of the attorney general’s office. We are not going to back down on this — this is a hill we are ready to die on,’ he added.
