By Andrew Hay

(Reuters] – Texas Judge will review Friday’s request to block state investigation into parents receiving gender-transitioning child care. Governor Greg Abbott called it “child abuse.”

Austin’s hearing was part of a wider pushback against the proposals of many states in America to criminalize trans-youth gender affirming treatment.

Abbott’s directive regarding probes to remove trans children from their families or jail parents for providing them with “constitute child abusing” methods, was sued by The American Civil Liberties Union.The February directive called for doctors, nurses, and teachers to report any such care or risk criminal sanctions.

Amy Clark Meachum, District Court Judge of the ACLU asks for a statewide order prohibiting investigations by Department of Family Protective Services into “medically needed gender-affirming care”.

Meachum, who claimed that the probe would expose parents to child abuse allegations against a transgender teenager girl aged 16, temporarily stopped the inquiry.

Advocates for gender-transitioning methods argue minors can’t make important decisions about their bodies. Advocates claim that the critical care is politically manipulated, affecting the mental health and suicide rates of trans youth.

In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden stated that state laws targeting transgender Americans were wrong and promised to adopt non-discriminatory legislation to help them.

Nine child welfare inquiries have been opened by the DFPS under Abbott’s directive.

Abbott (a Republican who is running for a third term) was named as a defendant along with DFPS’s commissioner Jaime Masters.