Paxton, Abbott overreach on trans kids, health. But here’s why the underlying concern is real
Among teen girls, the idea that they might be transgender is spreading like a contagion.
Last year, Texans watched as a Dallas family court as a judge stripped a father of custody of his child, James Younger, after he disagreed with his ex-wife that the child was actually transgender.
So, when Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott weighed in on transgender health care for children, they’re responding to important concerns about major medical transitions for children and parental rights.
Paxton wrote that certain hormone treatments or gender surgeries could constitute child abuse under federal law. Abbott promptly instructed state child-welfare officials to investigate reports of certain “sex change” procedures.
The timing of Paxton’s opinion, days before the primary election in Texas, is ludicrous. His opinion, under the guise of an inquiry from Fort Worth state Rep. Matt Krause, feels like a meet-cute set up by middle schoolers. Abbott’s order goes too far.
Paxton’s opinion is just that; it is non-binding, and it is not the law. Nor does it deny the humanity or suffering of transgender young people.
But without mincing words, Paxton simply lays out what a medical transition is and does to a child who has gender dysphoria and believes the cure lay with taking cross-sex hormones or surgery to remove or add vital male and female genitalia.
Paxton is clear and correct about the following: Cross-sex hormones and sex-change procedures drastically alter a child’s body, often irreversibly and often without a child’s full understanding, for example, of what it means to be sterile or infertile. This could cause emotional and physical damage to a child.
It’s hard to know how many children are affected by even the possibility. Few doctors seem willing to operate on children, but during a House committee’s hearing on the topic last year, a physician testifying on behalf of the Pediatric Endocrine Society said she might recommend a double mastectomy for a biological female younger than 18 — even around age 16 — because of the distress having breasts might cause a transgender male.
On their websites, Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas state they offer puberty blockers and other gender-affirming care only for adults ages 18 and older.
There are over a dozen pediatric gender clinics in Texas. According to the testimony of another woman who was not a Texas resident, a clinic operating in California and Texas offered a 14-year-old girl a double mastectomy as long as she has the right insurance.
Treatment for transgender children has had a progressive, political framework wrapped around it to the point that it is no longer simply a psychological or medical issue but a political one.
If a child younger than 18 was diagnosed with anorexia and doctors prescribed 500 calories a day and therapy that convinced her she was fat — and her parents eagerly facilitated this — that would constitute abuse.
Paxton is also correct that many children and adults do not receive relief from dysphoria after a surgical or hormonal transition. At the very least, these treatments are too drastic to be done on children. That’s the heart of his message.
Unfortunately, much of this common sense is lost because of Abbott’s overkill in calling on the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to hunt for abuse.
“Texas law imposes reporting requirements upon all licensed professionals who have direct contact with children who may be subject to such abuse, including doctors, nurses, and teachers, and provides criminal penalties for failure to report such child abuse,” Abbott wrote.
Of course, no child should be subject to any kind of abuse or neglect, including allowing or forcing a child to have cross-sex hormone therapy that sterilizes him for life.
However, there’s something discomforting about state officials encouraging the general public to keep a Big Brother watchful eye on others. Everyone is not cut from the same empathetic, child-first cloth. Family court is full of would-be busybodies inventing abuse stories to instill fear and drain the resources of an unsuspecting, caring relative.
Plus, the Department of Family and Protective Services has struggled to identify and act on real abuse. There’s a fine line between protecting children and paving a way for overly litigious narcs to clog up family court.
A law prohibiting medical providers from offering these services to those younger than 18 would be better than inviting excessive litigation.
Like all attempts to legislate morality, Paxton’s letter isn’t without flaws. However, he does hit the nail squarely on the head when explaining how badly cross-sex hormones and surgeries can hurt children who can’t yet comprehend their life-altering effects.
This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 8:09 AM.
