HOUSTON (LifeSiteNews) — A Texas court has temporarily halted nine investigations into parents of minors who received transgender hormone treatment affecting their puberty. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott previously ordered all state agencies to treat transgender hormone drugs and “sex change” surgeries for minors as child abuse under state law.
The ruling was issued by Judge Amy Clark Meachum in Travis County on Friday. It came in response to a legal challenge by the parents of one of the children believed to have received transgender treatment.
The Republican governor’s directive ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate reports of Texas children undergoing “abusive gender-transitioning procedures,” and “to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had declared in a legal opinion the day before those transgender procedures violate Texas statutes against child abuse.
On Thursday, CNN confirmed that since Paxton’s opinion and Abbott’s order, the state of Texas opened nine investigations into parents of minors having received such treatments or procedures.
But on Friday, following a day of testimony, Judge Meachum said the governor’s actions, and those of the agency, “violat[ed] separation of powers by impermissibly encroaching into the legislative domain.” She added that there was a “substantial likelihood” that the parents would prevail in a trial, as she deemed Abbott’s order to be “unconstitutional.”
Meachum’s Friday ruling applies to all investigations launched in Texas following Gov. Abbott’s order. These have now been halted until a July trial rules on the issue.
Last week, Meachum had already succeeded in temporarily halting the investigation of one family identified only as John, Jane, and Mary Doe. Abbott and Paxton both appealed her decision, but the state’s Third Court dismissed the appeal.
Though the halting of child abuse investigations until July constitutes a setback for Abbott and Paxton, the order has proven very efficient so far in stopping transgender procedures in Texas.
Last Wednesday, only a few weeks after Abbott’s order, the largest pediatric hospital in the U.S. announced that it would stop providing experimental transgender procedures to children.
The Houston-based Texas Children’s Hospital said Friday that it will no longer offer the procedures, citing possible legal repercussions.
“After assessing the Attorney General’s and Governor’s actions, Texas Children’s Hospital paused hormone-related prescription therapies for gender-affirming services,” the hospital said in a statement. “This step was taken to safeguard our healthcare professionals and impacted families from potential criminal legal ramifications.”
Abbott’s order came after UT Southwestern Medical Center shut down the state’s top “gender clinic” for children late last year amid weeks of protests by local parents and pressure from Republican officials.
The program, known as GENECIS, administered irreversibly damaging hormone-blocking drugs to children as young as 10 years old and made referrals for “sex change” surgeries. GENECIS claimed to have “impacted thousands of youth across the country” before closing in November.
Transgender hormone drugs are linked to serious and potentially fatal side effects, including heart attacks, increased risk of stroke and cancer, sterilization, and psychological issues.
“Sex change” surgeries, which have been performed on children in the U.S. as young as 13, cause lifelong mutilation. Studies show that as few as two percent of boys and 10 percent of girls with gender dysphoria experience the condition after puberty, according to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.