87R124 MCK-D
By: Toth H.B. No. 68
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the definition of abuse of a child.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 261.001, Family Code, is amended by
amending Subdivision (1) and adding Subdivisions (3-a) and (3-b) to
read as follows:
(1) "Abuse":
(A) includes the following acts or omissions by a
person:
(i) [(A)] mental or emotional injury to a
child that results in an observable and material impairment in the
child's growth, development, or psychological functioning;
(ii) [(B)] causing or permitting the child
to be in a situation in which the child sustains a mental or
emotional injury that results in an observable and material
impairment in the child's growth, development, or psychological
functioning;
(iii) [(C)] physical injury that results in
substantial harm to the child, or the genuine threat of substantial
harm from physical injury to the child, including an injury that is
at variance with the history or explanation given and excluding an
accident or reasonable discipline by a parent, guardian, or
managing or possessory conservator that does not expose the child
to a substantial risk of harm;
(iv) [(D)] failure to make a reasonable
effort to prevent an action by another person that results in
physical injury that results in substantial harm to the child;
(v) [(E)] sexual conduct harmful to a
child's mental, emotional, or physical welfare, including conduct
that constitutes the offense of continuous sexual abuse of young
child or children under Section 21.02, Penal Code, indecency with a
child under Section 21.11, Penal Code, sexual assault under Section
22.011, Penal Code, or aggravated sexual assault under Section
22.021, Penal Code;
(vi) [(F)] failure to make a reasonable
effort to prevent sexual conduct harmful to a child;
(vii) [(G)] compelling or encouraging the
child to engage in sexual conduct as defined by Section 43.01, Penal
Code, including compelling or encouraging the child in a manner
that constitutes an offense of trafficking of persons under Section
20A.02(a)(7) or (8), Penal Code, prostitution under Section
43.02(b), Penal Code, or compelling prostitution under Section
43.05(a)(2), Penal Code;
(viii) [(H)] causing, permitting,
encouraging, engaging in, or allowing the photographing, filming,
or depicting of the child if the person knew or should have known
that the resulting photograph, film, or depiction of the child is
obscene as defined by Section 43.21, Penal Code, or pornographic;
(ix) [(I)] the current use by a person of a
controlled substance as defined by Chapter 481, Health and Safety
Code, in a manner or to the extent that the use results in physical,
mental, or emotional injury to a child;
(x) [(J)] causing, expressly permitting,
or encouraging a child to use a controlled substance as defined by
Chapter 481, Health and Safety Code;
(xi) [(K)] causing, permitting,
encouraging, engaging in, or allowing a sexual performance by a
child as defined by Section 43.25, Penal Code;
(xii) [(L)] knowingly causing, permitting,
encouraging, engaging in, or allowing a child to be trafficked in a
manner punishable as an offense under Section 20A.02(a)(5), (6),
(7), or (8), Penal Code, or the failure to make a reasonable effort
to prevent a child from being trafficked in a manner punishable as
an offense under any of those sections; or
(xiii) [(M)] forcing or coercing a child to
enter into a marriage;
(B) subject to Paragraph (C), includes the
following acts by a medical professional or mental health
professional for the purpose of attempting to change or affirm a
child's perception of the child's sex, if that perception is
inconsistent with the child's biological sex as determined by the
child's sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous hormone profiles:
(i) performing a surgery that sterilizes
the child, including castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy,
oophorectomy, metoidioplasty, orchiectomy, penectomy,
phalloplasty, and vaginoplasty;
(ii) performing a mastectomy;
(iii) administering or supplying any of the
following medications that induce transient or permanent
infertility:
(a) puberty-blocking medication to
stop or delay normal puberty;
(b) supraphysiologic doses of
testosterone to females; or
(c) supraphysiologic doses of
estrogen to males; or
(iv) removing any otherwise healthy or
non-diseased body part or tissue; and
(C) does not include an act described by
Paragraph (B) performed on a child born with a medically verifiable
genetic disorder of sex development, including:
(i) a child with external biological sex
characteristics that are irresolvably ambiguous, including a child
born having:
(a) 46, XX chromosomes with
virilization;
(b) 46, XY chromosomes with
undervirilization; or
(c) both ovarian and testicular
tissue; or
(ii) a child who does not have the normal
sex chromosome structure for a male or female as determined by a
physician through genetic testing.
(3-a) "Medical professional" means a physician,
physician assistant, or advanced practice registered nurse
licensed to practice in this state.
(3-b) "Mental health professional" means a person who
is licensed to practice in this state as a psychologist,
psychiatrist, social worker, marriage and family therapist, mental
health counselor, or educational psychologist or any other person
designated or licensed under state law as a mental health or
behavioral science professional.
SECTION 2. Section 71.004, Family Code, is amended to read
as follows:
Sec. 71.004. FAMILY VIOLENCE. "Family violence" means:
(1) an act by a member of a family or household against
another member of the family or household that is intended to result
in physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or sexual assault or that
is a threat that reasonably places the member in fear of imminent
physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or sexual assault, but does
not include defensive measures to protect oneself;
(2) abuse, as that term is defined by Sections
261.001(1)(A)(iii), (v), (vii), (viii), (ix), (x), (xi), and (xiii)
[261.001(1)(C), (E), (G), (H), (I), (J), (K), and (M)], by a member
of a family or household toward a child of the family or household;
or
(3) dating violence, as that term is defined by
Section 71.0021.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.