AUSTIN (LifeSiteNews) –– By a 19-12 vote, the Texas Senate gave final approval Wednesday to legislation banning minors from being subjected to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and so-called gender-reassignment surgery, with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott expected to sign.

SB 14 forbids for minors an array of surgical and chemical procedures intended “[f]or the purpose of transitioning a child ’s biological sex as determined by the sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous profiles of the child or affirming the child ’s perception of the child’s sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child’s biological sex.”

Children already undergoing such treatments “shall wean off the prescription drug over a period of time and in a manner that is safe and medically appropriate and that minimizes the risk of complications.” The bill also prohibits Medicaid reimbursement for minors’ transitions. It would take effect starting in September.

“We are the Legislature — our job is to protect people,” said Republican state Sen. Bob Hall. “We protect children against lots of things. We don’t let them smoke. We don’t let them drink. We don’t let them buy lottery cards […] And so we are doing the right thing.”

Last year, Abbott ordered an investigation of underage transitions and directed state officials to treat underage transitions as child abuse, prompting Houston-based Texas Children’s Hospital to cease performing them. However, on Tuesday anti-woke activist Christopher Rufo of the Manhattan Institute obtained documents indicating that the hospital secretly resumed the procedures within days of that announcement, and has been performing them ever since.

Under SB 14, “If the attorney general has reason to believe that a person is committing, has committed, or is about to commit a violation of Section 161.702, the attorney general may bring an action to enforce this subchapter to restrain or enjoin the person from committing, continuing to commit, or repeating the violation.”

Evidence shows that “affirming” a child’s confusion about his or her biological sex carries severe harms, especially when such affirmation takes the form of physically transformative medical procedures. 

Studies find that more than 80% of children experiencing gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence, and that even full “reassignment” surgery often fails to resolve gender-confused individuals’ heightened tendency to engage in self-harm and suicide — and may even exacerbate it, including by reinforcing their confusion and neglecting the actual root causes of their mental strife.

The issue is grimly illustrated in the story of Yaeli Martinez, a 19-year-old to whom “gender transitioning” was touted as a possible cure for her depression in high school, supported by a high school counselor who withheld what she was going through from her mother. The troubled girl killed herself after trying to live as a man for three years.

Many oft-ignored “detransitioners,” individuals who attempted to live under a different “gender identity” before embracing their sex, attest to the physical and mental harm of reinforcing gender confusion, as well as to the bias and negligence of the medical establishment on the subject.