American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against Texas in an attempt to stop government officials investigating transgender parents who seek treatment.
Republican governor. Greg Abbott responded to a memo by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and ordered that the Department of Family and Protective Services of the state (DFPS), launch these investigations. Paxton wrote in his memo that any medical treatment given to a trans-minor is child abuse as certain treatments can interfere with the child’s reproduction ability.
However, this threat didn’t just cover gender reassignment surgery—something that normally doesn’t happen to minors anyway—but also hormonal treatments that block the impacts of puberty on a trans teen—something that doesn’t sterilize them and is reversible. This order came with the huge threat that any government official or healthcare worker would be caught unawares of a parent seeking medical treatment for a trans child.
While this might have looked like the latest loudmouthed culture war fight—the memo doesn’t change the state’s statutory definition of child abuse—the Texas DFPS has begun investigating parents of trans kids. One of their own was the first victim. The New York TimesAccording to reports, the DFPS has placed one of its staffers on leave while the agency probes the treatment that her trans 16-year old daughter received. Agency has asked the mother, who isn’t identified, to provide medical records for the teenager. Now, with help from the ACLU and her refusal, she’s filing suit to stop both the investigation into and the enforcement of Abbott’s orders.
After spending many pages explaining how this prohibited treatment was recommended by doctors, the ACLU filed Tuesday’s lawsuit in Travis County District Court. It finally landed on a position that libertarians could appreciate. The Governor, Attorney General, and DFPS are not authorized to perform any of these actions under Texas laws. Megan Mooney is a psychologist treating transpatients and required under Texas law to file a report on actual child abuse. Megan Mooney joins the plaintiffs.
Texas lawmakers just considered S.B. The bill, S.B. 1646 would have changed the state’s definition of child abuse to allow for medical treatment for trans teenagers. The bill was rejected. ACLU reports that Abbott appeared on radio after the bill failed to pass and explained that there was a way to solve this problem. It was the solution that Abbott sought to explain on radio, after the bill failed. The attorney general declared administratively that such treatment would count as child abuse. He deliberately ignored all medical professionals who disagreed (including the Texas Pediatric Society).
The ACLU claims that this decision puts Abbott and Paxton at odds with Texas’ Administrative Procedure Act. This Act governs how Texas agencies create new rules. ACLU claims that although the ACLU’s decision to investigate parents of trans children as potential abusers clearly constitutes a change in rules, it did not go through the legal process. In other words, no one involved in the decision is authorized to declare anything.
The lawsuit claims that every major American medical organization considers the treatment, which is now criminalized and effectively prohibited by DFPS, to be medically required. This is a shocking disregard for medicine and the medical requirements of some minors in Texas. It cannot be reconciled with Statute’s agency’s authority.
ACLU requests the court to stop DFPS’s use of Abbot and Paxton’s memos in order to investigate trans parents for child abuse.
Critics who help minors to transition argue that parents don’t understand all the potential risks and rush into making major decisions. It doesn’t matter if that is true. The solution is to not allow politicians or the government to decide what medical treatment constitutes legal. Two years ago, we were subject to bizarre COVID-19 public safety rules. Many of these regulations weren’t supported by science. Conservatives, in particular, should realize that politics can be a bad mechanism for choosing the right medical treatment. Politicians are not able to decide which medical treatments work and don’t. They make the legal and illegal decisions.
Abbott asserts support for this appeal by the ACLU to parental rights.
In effect, parents are no longer able to provide minor adolescent care in compliance with the recommendations of a doctor and other clinically relevant guidelines. The new agency rule is a violation of parental rights. New rule by the agency substitutes the parental decision to determine what medical treatment is most beneficial for their child’s best interests with that of the government.
However, it turned out that the transparent parents are being thrown under the bus here. big political winnerAbbott’s political strategist said that it was. Do not trust politicians, especially those who believe only in themselves. CertainRespect for parents and their rights.