AG Paxton Declares So-Called Sex-Change Procedures on Children and Prescription of Puberty Blockers to be "Child Abuse" Under Texas Law

Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General  

AUSTIN – (News Release) Attorney General Ken Paxton released a formal attorney general opinion concluding that performing certain “sex-change” procedures on children, and prescribing puberty-blockers to them, is “child abuse” under Texas law. The holding comes at a critical time when more and more Texans are seeing the horrors that flow from the merging of medicine and misguided ideology.

Specifically, the opinion concludes that certain procedures done on minors such as castration, fabrication of a “penis” using tissue from other body parts, fabrication of a “vagina” involving the removal of male sex organs, prescription of puberty-suppressors and infertility-inducers, and the like are all “abuse” under section 261.001 of the Texas Family Code.

“There is no doubt that these procedures are ‘abuse’ under Texas law, and thus must be halted,” said Attorney General Paxton. “The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has a responsibility to act accordingly. I’ll do everything I can to protect against those who take advantage of and harm young Texans.”

This opinion comes after Attorney General Paxton opined in an October 2019 letter to DFPS, stating that the “transition” of James Younger—the biological male son of Jeff Younger—to a “female” through puberty-blocking drugs, among other things, was “abuse” under at least three definitions set out in the Family Code, and that DFPS, therefore, had an independent duty to investigate. 

The opinion also follows Gov. Abbott’s August 2021 letter to DFPS requesting a determination of “whether genital mutilation of a child for purposes of gender transitioning through reassignment surgery constitutes child abuse.” The Commissioner of DFPS replied that “genital mutilation of a child through reassignment surgery is child abuse.”