On Friday, a Texas judge temporarily blocked the state from investigating parents of “transgender” children for child abuse.
ABC News reported that the temporary restraining order was issued by District Judge Jan Soifer. It halts investigations into three families of trangender children who are suing the state over the investigations, which Townhall covered.
At the end of a 40-minute hearing, Soifer reportedly said the families will suffer “immediate and irreparable injury” if the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services implement the investigations.
In March, Townhall covered how a federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked the investigations into the parents of transgender children from being carried out. The legal challenge was brought forward by the parents of a 16-year-old transgender girl. The teen’s family was among the first to be investigated by the state for child abuse. Two months later, a Texas court ruled that the investigations could continue.
The families had talked in court filings about the anxiety that the investigations had created for them and their children. The mother of one of the teens said her son attempted suicide and was hospitalized the day Abbott issued his directive. The outpatient psychiatric facility where the teen was referred reported the family for child abuse after learning he had been prescribed hormone therapy, she said in a court filing.
The investigations were launched under Texas Gov. Greg Abbott following a “non-binding” opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton that argued that parents who provide their children with hormone treatments, puberty blockers and sex reassignment surgery could be investigated for child abuse.
In an interview with Townhall in March, Paxton said that the Texas Family Code prohibits this type of treatment on minors.
"When performed on children, these procedures are 'abuse' under Texas law. They're illegal. And family courts, family-law government agencies, and the like must do their part to stop it," Paxton said.
Shortly after the investigations were launched, a Texas children’s hospital paused hormone therapy treatments for children. A spokesperson for the hospital told local news outlet KHOU that “this step was taken to safeguard our healthcare professionals and impacted families from potential criminal legal ramifications.”