Texas judge blocks child abuse investigation of family for providing gender-affirming medical care

AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas judge issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday that blocked the state's child-welfare agency from investigating a couple for child abuse because they provided gender-affirming medical care to their teenage daughter.

The order by District Judge Amy Clark Meachum also set a March 11 hearing on whether to grant a wider-ranging injunction barring the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services from following Gov. Greg Abbott's Feb. 23 directive to treat gender-affirming care for minors as child abuse.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, ACLU Women's Rights Project and Lambda Legal, a national LGBTQ civil rights group, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Abbott and the Department of Family and Protective Services and its commissioner Jaime Masters over investigations launched into parents of transgender minors immediately following the governor's directive.

Lawyers from two national civil rights organizations asked Meachum in an emergency hearing Wednesday morning to issue the temporary restraining order.

Two parents and their 16-year-old transgender daughter are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, under the names Jane and John Doe, and Mary Doe. They were one of the first families in Texas to face a DFPS investigation for helping their child seek best practice gender-affirming health care.

Meachum's decision to grant a temporary restraining order means the investigation into the Doe family has been put on pause.

“We are relieved that – at least for now – the threat of a child abuse investigation is no longer hanging over the heads of the family members in this case,” Paul Castillo, senior counsel for Lambda Legal said in a statement.

The mother, Jane Doe, is herself a DFPS employee, and was placed on leave last week after she asked supervisors how the department would interpret the governor's directive to investigate families like hers, according to the lawsuit.

"We are terrified for Mary’s health and wellbeing, and for our family. I feel betrayed by my state and the agency for whom I work," Jane Doe stated in the legal filing.

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The lawsuit came one week after Abbott issued the order, which is based on a non-legally binding opinion written by Attorney General Ken Paxton arguing gender-affirming treatments could be considered "child abuse."

"The Court finds Jane Doe has been placed on administrative leave at work and is at risk of losing her job and that Jane, John and Mary Doe face the imminent and ongoing deprivation of their constitutional rights, the potential loss of necessary medical care, and the stigma attached to being the subject of an unfounded child abuse investigation," Meachum wrote in the ruling.

Investigations into two additional families with transgender kids had also begun Castillosaid in Wednesday's court hearing.

Megan Mooney, a clinical psychologist and mandatory reporter of abuse under Texas law, is also named as a plaintiff. She has received threats that she'll lose her license if she does not report her transgender and nonbinary patients, Castillo said.

Medical providers in the state have already stopped providing prescriptions for gender-affirming care for transgender kids, Castillo said.

"The Court further finds that Plaintiff Mooney could face civil suit by patients for failing to treat them in accordance with professional standards and loss of licensure for failing to follow her professional ethics if she complies with Defendants’ orders and actions," Wednesday's ruling says.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, together with the Texas Pediatric Society, the Endocrine Society and the American Psychological Association, issued statements condemning Abbott's efforts to classify medically necessary treatments as "child abuse."

In recent months, several large-scale studies found access to gender-affirming care significantly decreased the risk of depression and suicide among transgender and nonbinary youth.

On Wednesday evening, President Joe Biden issued a statement rebuking Abbott's directives, saying the governor's actions "callously threaten to harm children and their families just to score political points."

The Department of Health and Human Services also said Wednesday it "stands with transgender and gender nonconforming youth and their families – and the significant majority of expert medical associations – in unequivocally stating that gender affirming care for minors, when medically appropriate and necessary, improves their physical and mental health."

What does the lawsuit say?

Tuesday's lawsuit claims Abbott's directives to investigate parents of transgender youth who received gender-affirming care were issued without proper authority. The plaintiffs couch their claims under a term called "ultra vires."

“It’s Latin for basically, ‘That’s not your job.’ It’s beyond your capacities," said Stephen Sheppard, a law professor at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas.

Additionally, the suit claims Abbott and Masters acted in violation of the Texas Administrative Procedures Act, the separation of powers requirements of the Texas Constitution and the right to due process and equal protections clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

“It’s absolute apathy by the governor and the attorney general as to their duties under the Constitution," Sheppard said.

At the hearing, Castillo explained that parents who stop providing their trans kids with best practice gender-affirming care in response to Abbott's directive could, under state statute, face separate DFPS investigations for failing to give their child the proper medical treatments.

'A political publicity stunt'

The plaintiffs will next seek to more permanently prohibit Abbott and DFPS' rule about investigating parents who provide gender-affirming care for their transgender kids, according to the lawsuit. That hearing is set for March 11, Lambda Legal said in a press release.

Castillo said the judge will have to consider whether to apply the relief granted to the Does to other Texas families.

"What is clear today is the fact that the judge recognized that families who are like the Does who are dealing with the stress of an open investigation suffer harm today, and that is excruciating. Today’s decision stops any further investigation from DFPS," Castillo said.

“This whole thing is a political publicity stunt, and they’re looking for victims," said Sheppard, predicting that the plaintiffs will prove Abbott is abusing his office. "...This is an election year stunt. And people get hurt."

The governor and the attorney general are both up for reelection this year.

In December 2021, the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals ruled Paxton violated the separation-of-powers clause in the Texas Constitution by trying to go after instances of voter fraud without the permission of local prosecutors, the Texas Tribune reported.

Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas judge temporarily blocks investigation of trans teen's parents