Bill Text: TX HB672 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to the definition of child abuse and the prosecution of the criminal offense of abandoning or endangering a child.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-02-23 - Referred to Public Health [HB672 Detail]

Download: Texas-2023-HB672-Introduced.html

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88R695 MCK-F
By: Hefner H.B. No. 672

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the definition of child abuse and the prosecution of the
criminal offense of abandoning or endangering a child.
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 Subdivision (3-a) 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;
(xiv) administering or supplying, or
consenting to or assisting in the administration or supply of, a
puberty suppression prescription drug or cross-sex hormone to a
child, other than an intersex child, for the purpose of gender
transitioning or gender reassignment; or
(xv) performing or consenting to the
performance of surgery or another medical procedure on a child,
other than an intersex child, for the purpose of gender
transitioning or gender reassignment; and
(B) does not include an act described by
Subparagraph (xiv) if the act is the dispensing or delivery of a
drug in accordance with Subtitle J, Title 3, Occupations Code, by a
person licensed under that subtitle.
(3-a) "Intersex child" means a child who is younger
than 18 years of age and either:
(A) has inborn chromosomal, gonadal, genital, or
endocrine characteristics, or a combination of those
characteristics, that are not suited to the typical definition of
male or female or are atypical for the determined sex of the child;
or
(B) is considered by a medical professional to
have inborn chromosomal, gonadal, genital, or endocrine
characteristics that are ambiguous or atypical for the determined
sex of the child.
SECTION 3. Section 22.041, Penal Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (a) and (c-1) and adding Subsections (c-2) and
(c-3) to read as follows:
(a) In this section:
(1) "Abandon"[, "abandon"] means to leave a child in
any place without providing reasonable and necessary care for the
child, under circumstances under which no reasonable, similarly
situated adult would leave a child of that age and ability.
(2) "Intersex child" means a child who is younger than
15 years of age and either:
(A) has inborn chromosomal, gonadal, genital, or
endocrine characteristics, or a combination of those
characteristics, that are not suited to the typical definition of
male or female or are atypical for the determined sex of the child;
or
(B) is considered by a medical professional to
have inborn chromosomal, gonadal, genital, or endocrine
characteristics that are ambiguous or atypical for the determined
sex of the child.
(c-1) For purposes of Subsection (c), it is presumed that a
person engaged in conduct that places a child in imminent danger of
death, bodily injury, or physical or mental impairment if:
(1) the person manufactured, possessed, or in any way
introduced into the body of any person the controlled substance
methamphetamine in the presence of the child;
(2) the person's conduct related to the proximity or
accessibility of the controlled substance methamphetamine to the
child and an analysis of a specimen of the child's blood, urine, or
other bodily substance indicates the presence of methamphetamine in
the child's body; [or]
(3) the person injected, ingested, inhaled, or
otherwise introduced a controlled substance listed in Penalty Group
1, Section 481.102, Health and Safety Code, or Penalty Group 1-B,
Section 481.1022, Health and Safety Code, into the human body when
the person was not in lawful possession of the substance as defined
by Section 481.002(24) of that code;
(4) the person administers or supplies, or consents to
or assists in the administering or supplying of, a puberty
suppression prescription drug or cross-sex hormone to a child for
the purpose of gender transitioning or gender reassignment; or
(5) the person performs or consents to the performance
of surgery or another medical procedure on a child for the purpose
of gender transitioning or gender reassignment.
(c-2) The presumptions provided by Subsections (c-1)(4) and
(5) do not apply to conduct described by those subsections that
involves an intersex child.
(c-3) The presumption provided by Subsection (c-1)(4) does
not apply to conduct described by that subsection if the conduct is
the dispensing or delivery of a drug in accordance with Subtitle J,
Title 3, Occupations Code, by a person licensed under that
subtitle.
SECTION 4. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act. An
offense committed before the effective date of this Act is governed
by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed, and the
former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For purposes of
this section, an offense was committed before the effective date of
this Act if any element of the offense occurred before that date.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.