The Texas House recently approved SB 14, a measure that will prevent minors from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and mutilation surgeries. It now heads back to the Senate, where House changes can either be accepted, or it can be sent to committee for changes.
The Senate version mandates an abrupt cutoff from treatment. The House offers a more gradual process where minors already accessing certain treatments will be "weaned off" in a "medically appropriate" manner.
Governor Greg Abbott (R) is expected to sign it into law, protecting anyone younger than 18 from certain "gender-affirming care," including transition-related surgeries.
"It does this by making sure that doctors are following actual science," notes Jonathan Covey of Texas Values. "Doctors are prohibited from following gender ideology junk science that says that you have to listen to … a kid's idea of what they think they are."
He poses, for example, that no doctor would hand an eight-year-old an alcoholic beverage just because the child thinks he or she is old enough to make the decision to drink.
"We don't let kids get tattoos without permission," Covey continues. "We don't let kids even buy cough syrup over the counter. Mutilating their bodies [is] much more serious than that, and we're finally taking a step to protect kids."
With the bill soon becoming law, and with Attorney General Ken Paxton's investigation underway, transgender physicians are reportedly departing Dell Children's Medical Center, the facility in Austin that Project Veritas recently exposed for providing potentially illegal "gender transitions" to young children.
