Texas’ Crusade Against Trans Kids Continues With Youth Healthcare Ban

Texas legislators have passed a ban on gender-affirming care for minors in the state, sending the controversial bill to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for final approval.

On Wednesday, the Texas Senate voted 19-12 in favor of Senate Bill 14, which would ban any Texan under 18 from receiving puberty blockers or hormone therapy if they are used to “transition a child ’s biological sex.” Minors currently receiving such care would be required to “wean off” their treatment under a doctor’s supervision. 

The bill also bans gender-affirming surgeries on minors, which only occurs in extremely rare cases, while carving out exceptions for intersex children who do not have “normal” chromosomal or physical development. Public funds, including Medicaid, would be barred from covering such care, and doctors who provide it to minor patients could be stripped of their medical licenses altogether.

The Texas House also voted in favor of SB 14 on Monday by a vote of 87-56. Two members, Republican Speaker Dade Phelan and Democrat Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, voted “present.”

The measure now heads to Gov. Abbott’s desk, who is widely expected to sign it, having spearheaded Texas’ crusade against trans youth since signing a sports ban for trans youth in 2021 and ordering investigations as to whether gender-affirming care is “child abuse” last year. Earlier this month, Texas police broke up a “sing-in” by trans and racial justice protestors who occupied Abbott’s office, arresting at least two people and banning another from the state capitol building for a full year. 

Nineteen U.S. states including Texas currently have laws or executive-level rules that prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, according to data collected by the Human Rights Campaign. About 30% of trans youth currently live in a state that legally denies them gender-affirming medical care.

“I am a really happy kid, and I have a really positive outlook on life, [but SB 14] would push me past my breaking point,” one trans teen told the Texas Tribune earlier this month. 

“It’s not ‘over my dead body’ because that would just be letting them win,” he continued. “I’m not going to be another statistic.”

On Thursday, legal advocacy groups including Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, and Transgender Law Center announced in a press release they would file a federal lawsuit challenging SB 14 should it receive Gov. Abbott’s signature.

Texas lawmakers are “hellbent on joining the growing roster of states determined to jeopardize the health and lives of transgender youth,” the organizations wrote in their statement.

“We will defend the rights of transgender youth in court, just as we have done in other states engaging in this anti-science and discriminatory fear-mongering.”

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