Abbott, a devout Roman Catholic whom the Freedom From Religion Foundation is currently suing over viewpoint censorship, issued the directive to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services about a week ago. Already, the state of Texas is investigating a family for “child abuse” after the parents sought gender-affirming care for a 16-year-old transgender daughter. The mother, who happens to be a state employee who reviews cases of abuse and neglect, was placed on leave when she sought clarification from a supervisor about the executive order. She is now suing Abbott and the Department of Family and Protective Services.
If the state agency were to determine the family in question has committed child abuse, it would be put on a child abuse registry and the mother could be fired, according to the legal complaint. Family members have indicated that they have “been unable to sleep, worrying about what they can do and how they can keep their family intact and their daughter safe and healthy.”
“It’s not child abuse for parents to seek gender-affirming care for trans children,” maintains FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “It’s child abuse if parents don’t seek out such care.”
Also suing is a clinical psychologist, who is now required by law to report if her clients are receiving gender-affirming care.
Body modification surgeries are rarely, if ever, performed on children. Puberty blockers are reversible. And “studies show the model of gender-affirming care has had a significant improvement on the mental well-being of transgender children,” the Texas Tribune reports.
As the White House has stated, “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.”
But this is par for the course for a fanatical governor who has stunningly halted most legal abortion in his state, promoted censorship of books in public schools and mismanaged the pandemic, thwarting business owners and even hospitals and assisted living facilities from instituting vaccine mandates.
A Christianized version of Big Brother is surfacing in Texas and all too many other states. Zealous public officials must not be allowed to play political football with women’s and LGBTQ lives and interfere with their right to health care and bodily autonomy.
