Texas AG declares it illegal for therapists to facilitate so-called sex changes for minors

Licensed therapists and other mental health professionals may not assist in so-called sex change efforts for minors under Texas law, says Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In a written legal opinion issued Feb. 27, Paxton concluded Senate Bill 14 applies not only to doctors who perform surgeries or prescribe cross-sex hormones but also to counselors and other mental health practitioners licensed by the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council.

“The definition of a ‘health care provider’ in subsection 161.701(2) of the Health and Safety Code unambiguously encompasses the professions regulated by the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council,” Paxton wrote in Opinion No. KP-0518.

That conclusion followed a request from the council’s executive director, who inquired whether the law applied to mental health licensees and how it affected services that did not involve surgery or prescriptions.

SB 14 bans physicians and health care providers from performing sterilizing surgeries, mastectomies or prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for the purpose of trying to change a child’s biological sex. The attorney general’s opinion states that the term “health care provider” includes licensed professionals who provide mental health services.

Paxton also pointed to the law’s funding restrictions. State law forbids public money from being “used, granted, paid, or distributed to any health care provider . . . that provides or facilitates the provision of a procedure or treatment to a child that is prohibited” under the statute.

The opinion stresses that facilitation is not limited to physically performing a procedure.

“The Legislature’s prohibition on those unlawfully ‘transitioning’ our kids – which covers not only any person or entity who ‘provides’ medical interventions, but also an individual or entity who ‘facilitates’ medical interventions – certainly applies to licensed mental health care providers,” Paxton’s office said in a statement.

Paxton went further in describing the problem.

“Any radical facilitating the ‘transitioning’ of our kids is committing child abuse,” Paxton said. “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.”

In the formal summary of the opinion, Paxton wrote: “Any licensee that facilitates the provision of unlawful procedures or treatments that aim to transition a child’s sex are thus forbidden from receiving public money in support of those efforts and, separately, risk revocation of their licenses to practice.”

Under the ruling, therapists who help initiate or advance banned interventions for minors could face loss of public funding and professional discipline.