Texas Mental Health Professionals Prohibited From Providing ‘Radical’ Gender Transition Treatment to Minors

Texas’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, is warning mental health professionals that they could face legal penalties under a law that bans so-called gender-affirming care for minors. In a legal opinion released on Monday, Mr. Paxton said that mental health professionals, such as licensed therapists and counselors, are considered “health care providers” under Senate Bill 14, which bans surgeries and other gender transition procedures for minors.The letter came after the executive director of the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council, Darrell Spinks, asked the attorney general whether the law applies to licensed therapists and counselors.“The Council’s licensees plainly constitute health care providers… resulting in a bar on all public funds for those who facilitate prohibited procedures—in addition to the longstanding constraints on licensed practice,” Mr. Paxton said.He wrote that his office has received “several briefs highlighting that mental health professionals serve as the ‘clinical gatekeepers whose assessments and recommendations initiate the interventions’ prohibited by SB 14.”Along with surgeries, SB 14 also prohibits providing puberty blockers and hormone therapies to minors.The attorney general’s legal opinion warned that mental health professionals who “facilitate” those treatments risk losing state funds. It also said they could face disciplinary action, including the loss of their professional license. It also noted that the state requires mental health providers to report colleagues who “facilitate” a minor’s transition. “Any radical facilitating the ‘transitioning’ of our kids is committing child abuse,” Mr. Paxton said in a statement. “The law is clear that these radical procedures are illegal and in no world should Texans’ tax dollars be used to permanently harm children. This opinion should send a clear warning there will be consequences for any medical professional, whether a doctor or a therapist, who is illegally ‘transitioning’ Texas kids,” he added.The legal opinion comes as Mr. Paxton is running for the Republican nomination for Senate, challenging Senator John Cornyn in the primary to be decided on Tuesday. A recent poll conducted by the University of Texas at Tyler shows that Mr. Cornyn has 41 percent of the vote while Mr. Paxton has 35 percent of the vote. Mr. Paxton has sought to crack down on “gender ideology.” Last fall, he issued a legal opinion that prevented the state from updating the gender marker on transgender individuals’ driver’s licenses. He stated that the concept of gender identity “defies biological reality” and that the “perception” of one’s gender identity does not change a person’s biological sex.

Texas Mental Health Professionals Prohibited From Providing ‘Radical’ Gender Transition Treatment to Minors

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