Texas Governor: Transgender surgeries and drugs are child abuse

Transgender drugs and surgeries are a form of child abuse, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared, and he has instructed state agencies to investigate cases involving minors undergoing such interventions.

The move came after an opinion was handed down by state Attorney General Ken Paxton in which he declared the practices a violation of Texas law. The opinion applies to procedures such as genital mutilation, mastectomies and anything else that entails “removing from children otherwise healthy or non-diseased body part or tissue.” It also encompasses transgender hormone drugs like puberty blockers.

Paxton wrote: “When considering questions of child abuse, a court would likely consider the fundamental right to procreation, issues of physical and emotional harm associated with these procedures and treatments, consent laws in Texas and throughout the country, and existing child abuse standards.”

He added: “The Texas Family Code is clear — causing or permitting substantial harm to the child or the child’s growth and development is child abuse. Courts have held that an unnecessary surgical procedure that removes a healthy body part from a child can constitute a real and significant injury or damage to the child.”

Abbott has also instructed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate “any reported instances of Texas children being subjected to abusive gender-transitioning procedures.”

The directive was also sent to the Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Education Agency, reminding them that state law requires licensed professionals who come into contact with children, such as teachers and healthcare workers, to report child abuse or face criminal punishment.

DFPS confirmed to KXAN Austin that although there are no pending child abuse investigations involving these procedures at the moment, they will investigate any allegations that are reported to them and plan to enforce the AG’s opinion.

In August, the agency made its own declaration that transgender genital mutilation is a form of child abuse. A few weeks later, the state’s top “gender clinic”, GENECIS, closed its doors. Paxton also launched an investigation into a pair of pharmaceutical firms that were accused of illegally promoting hormone blockers to children who have gender dysphoria.

Transgender surgeries and drugs linked to serious physical and mental health problems

In addition to infringing on the fundamental human right to procreate, which is a constitutional right recognized by the Supreme Court under the 14th Amendment, Paxton said these interventions are associated with serious side effects such as a higher risk of stroke and cancer, cardiovascular disease and thrombosis, not to mention serious mental health effects.

Federal regulators have not approved any type of medical treatment for gender dysphoria, and no long-term clinical data is available about transgender procedures for minors who have gender disorders. Moreover, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders reports that around 99 percent of boys and 90 percent of girls who have gender dysphoria will accept their biological sex by the time they reach adulthood. Unfortunately, the gender-confused kids who are given puberty blockers will usually go on to take cross-sex hormones, which can result in sterilization and often lead them to undergo transgender surgeries.

Children as young as 13 have been subjected to “sex change” surgeries despite not having the mental capacity to make such a weighty and irreversible decision. There’s a reason people that age are not allowed to sign contracts or vote, as Paxton pointed out in his opinion.

He wrote: “Children and adolescents are promised relief and asked to ‘consent’ to life-altering, irreversible treatment—and to do so in the midst of reported psychological distress, when they cannot weigh long-term risks the way adults do, and when they are considered by the state in most regards to be without legal capacity to consent, contract, vote, or otherwise.”

The American Principles Project commended Paxton for his stance, urging the attorneys general of other states to “follow his lead to protect the innocence of our nation’s kids from the woke ideologues and Big Pharma executives eager to exploit them.”

Sources for this article include:

LifeSiteNews.com

HoustonChronicle.com