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AUSTIN, Texas (LifeSiteNews) – Texas can investigate giving transgender surgeries and drugs to minors as “child abuse” according to a ruling Friday from the state’s highest court.

The Texas Supreme Court lifted a lower court’s statewide injunction preventing the Department of Family and Protective Services’ (DFPS) from investigating parents for “child abuse” if their kids take transgender drugs or have genital mutilation or other transgender surgeries.

The court ruled that since neither Governor Greg Abbott nor Attorney General Ken Paxton could require DFPS to investigate the child abuse, plaintiffs could not argue that Gov. Abbott’s February order instructing DFPS to launch the investigations was an improperly created regulation. In Texas, the secretaries of departments are not bound to follow directives from the governor or attorney general.

“DFPS does not need permission from courts to investigate, but it needs permission from courts to take action on the basis of an investigation,” the majority opinion stated. “At that stage, before issuing orders, a court would have to decide whether the child abuse investigated and alleged by DFPS qualifies as such under Texas law.”

RELATED: Swing state voters support bans on transgender surgeries for kids: new poll

A specific investigation into a 16-year-old gender dysphoric individual remains blocked pending the separate court case to stop the inquiry, according to the Austin-American Statesman.

Attorney General Paxton called the Friday ruling a victory. “Just secured a win for families against the gender ideology of doctors, big pharma, clinics trying to ‘trans’ confused, innocent children,” he tweeted. “SCOTX green-lighted investigations that lower Dem courts froze ‘Transing’ kids through surgery/drugs is abuse & I’ll do all I can to stop it.”

Paxton had previously written a legal opinion that argued transgender surgeries and drugs could constitute abuse of a child.

“When considering questions of child abuse, a court would likely consider the fundamental right to procreation, issues of physical and emotional harm associated with these procedures and treatments, consent laws in Texas and throughout the country, and existing child abuse standards,” he wrote.

“The Texas Family Code is clear — causing or permitting substantial harm to the child or the child’s growth and development is child abuse,” Paxton wrote. “Courts have held that an unnecessary surgical procedure that removes a healthy body part from a child can constitute a real and significant injury or damage to the child.”

Individuals who have undergone so-called “gender-affirming care” have warned about the effects of the drugs and surgeries.

Helena Kerschner, a young woman who recently “detransitioned,” told Michael Knowles how the Internet and social media encourages gender confusion. She said that her insecurities about her body as a teenager led her to Tumblr, where “gender ideology is very prominent.”

There are “social incentives” to change your pronouns and embrace gender ideology to stay in those online communities, Kerschner said. She told Knowles that Planned Parenthood injected her with hormone drugs to “transition” her to a man, a decision she soon regretted.

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