Bill Text: TX HB4624 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to gender modification procedures and treatments for certain minors; providing a civil penalty.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-03-22 - Referred to Public Health [HB4624 Detail]

Download: Texas-2023-HB4624-Introduced.html

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88R10569 EAS-D
By: Leach H.B. No. 4624

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to gender modification procedures and treatments for
certain minors; providing a civil penalty.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. GENDER MODIFICATION PROCEDURES AND
TREATMENTS. Chapter 161, Health and Safety Code, is amended by
adding Subchapter X to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER X. GENDER MODIFICATION PROCEDURES AND TREATMENTS ON
MINORS
Sec. 161.701. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:
(1) "Congenital defect" means a physical or chemical
abnormality present in a minor that is inconsistent with the normal
development of a human being of the minor's sex, including
abnormalities caused by a medically verifiable disorder of sex
development. The term does not include gender dysphoria, gender
identity disorder, gender incongruence, or any mental condition,
disorder, disability, or abnormality.
(2) "Gender modification procedure or treatment"
means a health care procedure or treatment performed or
administered for the purpose of:
(A) enabling a minor to identify with, or live
as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex; or
(B) treating purported discomfort or distress
from a discordance between the minor's sex and asserted identity.
(3) "Health care procedure or treatment" includes:
(A) surgically removing, modifying, altering, or
entering into tissues, cavities, or organs of a human being; or
(B) prescribing, administering, or dispensing
any drug or device to a human being.
(4) "Health care provider" means an individual or
facility licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized by this
state's laws to provide or render health care or to dispense or
prescribe a prescription drug in the ordinary course of business or
practice of a profession.
(5) "Minor" means an individual who is younger than 18
years of age for whom the disabilities of minority have not been
removed.
(6) "Sex" means an individual's immutable
characteristics of the reproductive system that define the
individual as male or female, as determined by anatomy and genetics
existing at the time of birth.
Sec. 161.702. CONSTRUCTION OF SUBCHAPTER. (a) This
subchapter is remedial in nature and must be liberally construed to
accomplish its purposes.
(b) This subchapter may not be construed to impose liability
on a minor on whom a gender modification procedure or treatment is
performed or administered in violation of Section 161.703.
Sec. 161.703. PROHIBITED GENDER MODIFICATION PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENTS FOR CERTAIN MINORS. Except as provided by Section
161.704, a health care provider may not perform or offer to perform
on a minor, or administer or offer to administer to a minor, a
gender modification procedure or treatment.
Sec. 161.704. EXCEPTIONS. (a) This subchapter does not
apply to a health care provider performing, offering to perform,
administering, or offering to administer a health care procedure or
treatment to a minor if the performance or administration of the
procedure or treatment is to treat a minor's congenital defect,
disease, or physical injury.
(b) For purposes of Subsection (a), "disease" does not
include:
(1) gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder, or
gender incongruence; or
(2) any mental condition, disorder, disability, or
abnormality.
(c) This subchapter does not apply to a health care provider
performing, offering to perform, administering, or offering to
administer a health care procedure or treatment to a minor if the
performance or administration of the procedure or treatment is
continuing a procedure or treatment on the minor that began before
September 1, 2023, and the minor's treating physician certifies in
writing that, in the physician's good-faith medical judgment, based
on the facts known to the physician at the time, ending the
procedure or treatment would be harmful to the minor.
(c-1) The certification under Subsection (c) must include
the physician's findings supporting the certification and must be
placed in the minor's medical record.
(c-2) Subsection (c) may not be construed to:
(1) allow a health care provider to perform or
administer a gender modification procedure or treatment that is
different from the gender modification procedure or treatment
performed before September 1, 2023; and
(2) waive a minor's right to bring an action under
Section 161.706 for a gender modification procedure or treatment
that does not comply with this subchapter after September 1, 2023.
(c-3) This subsection and Subsections (c), (c-1), and (c-2)
expire September 1, 2033.
Sec. 161.705. EFFECT OF CONSENT. (a) It is not a defense to
any legal liability incurred as the result of a violation of Section
161.703 that the minor, or a parent, legal guardian, or conservator
of the minor, consented to the conduct that constituted the
violation.
(b) This subchapter supersedes any other law regarding a
minor's ability to consent to a gender modification procedure or
treatment.
Sec. 161.706. CIVIL ACTION; EFFECT ON IMMUNITY. (a) A
minor injured as a result of a violation of Section 161.703, or a
parent, legal guardian, or managing conservator of the minor, other
than a parent, guardian, or conservator described by Subdivision
(2), may bring a civil action against:
(1) a health care provider who violated Section
161.703; and
(2) the minor's parent, legal guardian, or conservator
who consented to the conduct that constituted the violation.
(b) Subsection (a)(2) waives any common law immunity
granted to a parent, legal guardian, or conservator to the extent of
liability created by this section.
Sec. 161.707. WRONGFUL DEATH ACTION. A parent, legal
guardian, or conservator or next of kin of a minor may bring a
wrongful death action under Section 161.706 in accordance with
Subchapter A, Chapter 71, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, against
a health care provider who violates Section 161.703 if the minor who
is the subject of the action is deceased and:
(1) the minor's death is the result of the physical or
emotional harm inflicted on the minor by the violation; and
(2) the parent, guardian, or conservator did not
consent to the conduct that constituted the violation.
Sec. 161.708. LIMITATIONS PERIOD. Notwithstanding any
other law, a claimant must bring an action under Section 161.706 not
later than the earlier of:
(1) the 30th anniversary of the date the minor who is
the subject of the action becomes 18 years of age; or
(2) the 10th anniversary of the minor's death.
Sec. 161.709. DAMAGES. (a) A claimant may recover
compensatory damages, exemplary damages, and reasonable attorney's
fees, court costs, and expenses in an action brought under Section
161.706.
(b) Compensatory damages include:
(1) reasonable economic losses caused by the
emotional, mental, or physical effects of the violation, including:
(A) the cost of counseling, hospitalization, and
any other medical expenses connected with treating the harm caused
by the violation;
(B) out-of-pocket costs of the minor paid to the
health care provider for the prohibited medical procedure; and
(C) loss of income caused by the violation; and
(2) noneconomic damages caused by the violation,
including psychological and emotional anguish.
Sec. 161.710. REQUIRED NOTICE OF KNOWING OR INTENTIONAL
VIOLATION. If a court finds that a defendant knowingly or
intentionally violated Section 161.703 in an action brought under
Section 161.706, the court shall notify the appropriate state
regulatory authority for the defendant and the attorney general by
mailing a certified copy of the signed judgment for the action to
the state regulatory authority and the attorney general.
Sec. 161.711. ATTORNEY GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES; CIVIL
PENALTY. (a) The attorney general shall establish a process by
which knowing or intentional violations of Section 161.703 are
reported.
(b) The attorney general may bring an action against a
health care provider who knowingly or intentionally violates
Section 161.703 not later than the 20th anniversary of the
violation to:
(1) enjoin further violations;
(2) recover any profits received due to the procedure
or treatment that is the subject of the violation; and
(3) recover a civil penalty in an amount of $25,000 per
violation.
(c) The attorney general shall deposit a civil penalty
collected under this section in the general revenue fund.
(d) The attorney general is entitled to reasonable
attorney's fees, court costs, and expenses if the attorney general
prevails in an action brought under this section.
(e) Venue for an action brought under this section is in a
district court of Williamson County or the county where the
violation occurred.
Sec. 161.712. STATE REGULATORY AUTHORITY EMERGENCY ACTION.
A violation of Section 161.703 constitutes a potential threat to
public health, safety, and welfare and requires emergency action by
the health care provider's appropriate state regulatory authority.
On receiving notification under Section 161.710 or when the
authority otherwise becomes aware of the violation, the authority
shall take appropriate disciplinary action against the provider.
SECTION 2. SEVERABILITY. If any provision of this Act or
its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the
invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of this
Act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or
application, and to this end the provisions of this Act are declared
to be severable.
SECTION 3. TRANSITIONS. (a) Subchapter X, Chapter 161,
Health and Safety Code, as added by this Act, applies only to a
medical procedure or treatment performed or administered on or
after the effective date of this Act.
(b) Subchapter X, Chapter 161, Health and Safety Code, as
added by this Act, applies only to a cause of action that accrues on
or after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 4. EFFECTIVE DATE. This Act takes effect September
1, 2023.