Mark Davis: Abbott finally on board for ban on trans surgery for kids. Took him long enough

There’s a law of politics that is as reliable as the laws of physics: Politicians will say or do things they consider to be helpful to their campaigns and refrain from saying and doing things they consider harmful.

So, in a conversation last week on my radio show, Gov. Greg Abbott guaranteed future migrant bus trips to major Democrat-run cities and displayed aggressive enthusiasm for identifying the ways in which he feels his opponent Beto O’Rourke is out of touch with that subjective commodity called “Texas values.” But I had to ask why one noteworthy battle has seemed to lie just outside the governor’s front-of-mind list.

It is impossible to ignore the full-court press under way to promote and even celebrate the foisting of radical gender ideology onto our children. School boards in Texas and across America are battling through books and curricula filled with suggestions that the slightest lean in behaviors or interests toward a different gender must be evidence of a defect crying out for correction.

Cheerleading is spreading for “gender-affirming surgeries,” which, while rare for those younger than 18, involve significant body alterations that children should not undergo. Images abound online of teens beaming after mastectomies playfully labeled “top surgeries.”

There has been no small amount of outcry for Texas to join, if not lead, a list of states where disfiguring children or giving them puberty-blocking drugs are on a path to becoming illegal. Texas would seem to be a natural fit to echo Florida, where the state medical board is moving to outlaw such procedures under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

WHY NO SPECIAL SESSION ON THE ISSUE?

We saw repeated special legislative sessions in Austin to address a variety of issues in the 2021 regular session, but Abbott never gave lawmakers an opportunity to act on an issue that would presumably find favor among a majority of Texas and vast popularity among the Republican base.

I asked Abbott earlier this year why such a measure, conspicuous by its absence, did not merit a push from his office. He replied that it would have no chance of passing the House, a claim denied by a number of House Republicans I contacted, not all of them as energized about the issue as I am. Even if the governor were correct that such a bill would fail, a vote would provide instant clarity on which legislators of both parties are willing to protect children and which are not, which would have struck me as highly useful information for this election year.

Speculation arose that Abbott has a residual opposition to the current wave of gender radicalism, from so-called “kid-friendly” drag shows and inappropriate school library books to the growing incidence of physically healthy children undergoing life-altering procedures. But perhaps to spare wavering Republicans election-year embarrassment, that objection did not rise to the level of bringing the issue to the legislative mat in 2021 or 2022. So last week, I asked him why that was and whether we might see increased eagerness to address the issue should he secure a third term.

“I think you will probably see legislation on it,” he replied. “We have seen more and more revelations across the United States about children’s hospitals that literally are carving up the genitals of minors. No minor should have their sexuality destroyed.”

Precisely right. So, why isn’t it illegal in Texas?

ABBOTT’S CHILD ABUSE ORDER IS ONE THING, BUT WE NEED A LAW

In months past, Abbott has touted his direction to the state Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate such procedures as child abuse. That is not enough. There is no substitute for a law on the books specifically banning such procedures and punishing doctors who perform them, thus dissuading parents who misguidedly seek such surgeries for children.

Referring back to that adage that politicians will reliably do things that they think will help them, it is not unreasonable to conclude that Abbott felt that DeSantis-style devotion to this cause might hand O’Rourke a bat to swing at him during this entire campaign season. He may be right about that, but he is not running for governor of a purple state.

Since Abbott is motivated to point out the difference between his agenda and his opponent’s, one can imagine the effectiveness of campaign stops — and the stage of their Sept. 30 debate, the only one scheduled — where Abbott could have said: “Beto thinks it’s great if your sons and daughters get surgery to live as the opposite gender. I took steps to make it illegal.”

As it is, such a measure will have to wait. “I think you will see laws passed in the state of Texas that ensure protection of minors from having their genitals changed,” he told me. Invoking his directive to state agencies, he concluded: “We have protections in place, but I think you will see legislation in the next session to make sure that is more fully and broadly addressed.”

Which brings to mind another reliable maxim: Better late than never.

Mark Davis hosts a morning radio show on 660-AM and at 660amtheanswer.com . Follow him on Twitter: @markdavis .