Bill Text: TX HB26 | 2021 | 87th Legislature 3rd Special Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to the definition of abuse of a child.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-09-09 - Filed [HB26 Detail]
Download: Texas-2021-HB26-Introduced.html
| By: Slaton | H.B. No. 26 | |
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| 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(1), Family Code, as amended by | ||
| H.B. No. 375 and H.B. No. 1540, Acts of the 87th Legislature, | ||
| Regular Session, 2021, as effective September 1, 2021, is reenacted | ||
| and amended to read as follows: | ||
| (1) "Abuse": | ||
| (A) includes the following acts or omissions by a | ||
| person: | ||
| (i) [ |
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| child that results in an observable and material impairment in the | ||
| child's growth, development, or psychological functioning; | ||
| (ii) [ |
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| 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) [ |
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| 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) [ |
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| effort to prevent an action by another person that results in | ||
| physical injury that results in substantial harm to the child; | ||
| (v) [ |
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| 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) [ |
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| effort to prevent sexual conduct harmful to a child; | ||
| (vii) [ |
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| 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) [ |
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| 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) [ |
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| 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) [ |
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| or encouraging a child to use a controlled substance as defined by | ||
| Chapter 481, Health and Safety Code; | ||
| (xi) [ |
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| encouraging, engaging in, or allowing a sexual performance by a | ||
| child as defined by Section 43.25, Penal Code; | ||
| (xii) [ |
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| 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) [ |
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| 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. | ||
| SECTION 2. Section 261.001, Family Code, is amended by | ||
| adding Subdivisions (3-a) and (3-b) to read as follows: | ||
| (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 3. 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) | ||
| [ |
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| 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 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives | ||
| a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as | ||
| provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this | ||
| Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this | ||
| Act takes effect on the 91st day after the last day of the | ||
| legislative session. | ||
