The most recent development in the ongoing debate over transgender wokeism comes to us from Texas and it may light a fire that’s been coming for a long time. Governor Greg Abbott has directed various state agencies to promptly investigate instances of “transitional” medical procedures being performed on children under the state’s child abuse laws and prosecute those found to be engaged in such practices. Of course, when the Boston Globe covered this story, they chose to describe such procedures as “gender-affirming care.” This move by Abbott should properly be viewed as common sense, but sadly, such sensibilities are far from common these days and the medical community has continued an alarming slide toward woke political theory instead of actual science.

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott this week directed state agencies to conduct “prompt and thorough” investigations into the use of gender-affirming care for transgender children, a move that follows an opinion from the state attorney general that such treatments are a form of “child abuse.”

In a Tuesday letter to the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services, Abbott cited an opinion issued Friday by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stating that certain gender-affirming treatments for transgender children — including gender reassignment surgery and puberty-blocking medications — “can legally constitute child abuse under several provisions” of state law.

Abbott wrote that the protective services agency “is responsible for protecting children from abuse,” adding in a tweet Tuesday that the agency will “refer for prosecution any such abuse.”

It’s not just the doctors and nurses who perform these procedures who could be in trouble. Abbott reminded everyone that doctors, nurses, and teachers all have an obligation to report child abuse when it is observed or suspected. Failure to do so can come with additional criminal penalties.

No matter how uncomfortable it may be for progressives to hear this, a move like the one Abbott is launching is long overdue and it’s something I’ve been beating the drum about here for years. If you’re an adult and you want to “transition” because you believe you were somehow born into the wrong gender, that’s up to you. If you want to flood your body with unnatural hormones or have your genitals or breasts mutilated for purely cosmetic reasons, that’s your choice, provided you’re willing to live with the consequences. Heck, if you want to spend tens of thousands of dollars on surgery to turn yourself into a snake, enjoy yourself. Just don’t come back complaining when you can’t land a job anywhere outside of a circus freak show.

But we’re not talking about adults here. We’re talking about children and it has long been established that American society, along with the government, has a responsibility to protect children and ensure their safety. Particularly when we’re talking about prepubescent children, there is simply no way that they have any real idea about how they will view sexuality and gender once they become adults. And their woke parents don’t know that either. Subjecting them to irreversible medical procedures to “affirm their gender” at that age is unforgivable.

Keep in mind that even when it comes to treatments to delay puberty for such reasons, the drugs used to do this, most commonly Lupron, have never been approved by the FDA for use in cases of gender dysphoria. Those drugs are only intended to treat precocious puberty, and even then, generally only for short periods of time. Artificially delaying puberty for no medical reason can lead to significant medical issues further down the line.

When it comes to performing genital mutilation surgery on children for the purpose of “gender affirmation,” that’s simply insane. We’re talking about a procedure that is irreversible being performed on an otherwise entirely healthy child. If you haven’t already read it, take a look at John’s recent profile of a woman who fell into the transgender lifestyle only to later “de-transition” after realizing she had made a terrible mistake. She sounds like she might be okay, but there’s no way of knowing what long-term effects all of the maximum-strength testosterone injections she received will have on her. And if she had gone all the way and subjected herself to surgical genital mutilation, she would likely be suicidal at this point.

Just as a reminder, since 1996 it has been a felony to perform female genital mutilation surgery on any patient under the age of 18 or to attempt to arrange to fly a child out of the country for that purpose. The offense carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. The law was passed primarily to protect girls in Muslim families from the practice, but there are no exceptions to the law for any reason. So doctors doing so in Texas should already be on their way to jail. Abbott’s initiative would only reinforce that restriction.