88R1978 MCK-F
 
  By: Slaton H.B. No. 42
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to the definition of child abuse.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  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 2.  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 disabled individual 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, solicitation of prostitution under
  Section 43.021, 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 an
  individual 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 individual designated or licensed under state law as a
  mental health or behavioral science professional.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.