TEXAS — Texas has joined an amicus brief with 15 other states in support of Alabama’s Vulnerable Child Protection Act, which would ban gender-affirming procedures for children including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery. 

What You Need To Know

  • Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday joined an amicus brief in support of Alabama’s Vulnerable Child Protection Act

  • The bill would ban gender-affirming procedures for children including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone treatment and surgery

  • Paxton earlier this year wrote an opinion in which he said some gender-affirming procedures for minors is child abuse under state law

  • The opinion led to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directing the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate and report such procedures

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the move on Wednesday. Paxton, along with other Republicans, deems such care abuse.

“I support any law in any state that protects vulnerable children from the sexual predations of the left,” Paxton wrote in a news release. “I trust that the Alabama law will withstand judicial scrutiny, and I’m proud to help.” 

Paxton’s news release says the brief “demonstrates the lack of medical or scientific evidence supporting so-called sex changes performed on children.”

 However, the American Medical Association does not agree with Paxton’s assessment of gender-affirming care.

“The AMA opposes the dangerous intrusion of government into the practice of medicine and the criminalization of health care decision-making,” AMA Board member Michael Suk wrote in June 2021. “Gender-affirming care is medically necessary, evidence-based care that improves the physical and mental health of transgender and gender-diverse people.”

This is not the first time Paxton has gone after such care. In February, he wrote an opinion in which he said some gender-affirming procedures for minors are child abuse under state law. That led to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directing the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate and report such procedures.

In March, Paxton sued the Biden administration over a federal guidance stating that health care providers that report families for seeking gender-affirming care may do so in violation of federal law and may be subject to investigation.

Also in March, Paxton announced an investigation into two companies that produce puberty blockers. Paxton says the companies, AbbVie Inc. and Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., may have advertised their drugs in violation of state law. Paxton says the drugs, Supprelin LA and Lupron Depot, are approved to treat Central Precocious Puberty, a condition in which puberty occurs prematurely in children, and that some versions of Lupron are approved to treat prostate cancer.

However, Paxton said, the Food and Drug Administration has not approved the drugs to treat gender dysphoria and the companies may have marketed them that way.