Bill Text: TX HB68 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to the definition of abuse of a child.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 48-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-02-25 - Referred to Public Health [HB68 Detail]
Download: Texas-2021-HB68-Introduced.html
87R124 MCK-D | ||
By: Toth | H.B. No. 68 |
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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, 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) [ |
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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 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) [ |
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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, prostitution under Section | ||
43.02(b), 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. | ||
(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) | ||
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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 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021. |