Doe v. Abbott

In February 2022, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a directive stating that health care that is medically necessary for treating gender dysphoria should be considered a form of child abuse. The Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) followed Abbott’s directive and issued a new rule to investigate medically necessary health care for transgender youth across Texas.

A week later, the Doe family and Dr. Mooney filed this lawsuit against Governor Abbott, DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters, and DFPS. The lawsuit claims that these directive and rule were issued without proper authority, in violation of the Texas Administrative Procedure Act, the separation-of-powers requirements of the Texas Constitution, and the constitutional rights of transgender youth and their parents.

In March 2022, the district court for Travis County issued a temporary injunction blocking Abbott’s directive and DFPS’s new rule triggering investigations into essential medical care for transgender youth. In making that decision, the court found that defendants’ actions were causing irreparable harm and that plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claims.

The Third Court of Appeals upheld the injunction and issued an order blocking defendants’ actions statewide. The Governor, Commissioner, and DFPS appealed that decision and sought interim relief from the Texas Supreme Court. On May 13, 2022, the Texas Supreme Court kept the injunction in place with regards to the Doe family and Dr. Mooney, but narrowed the scope of the appellate court’s injunction. The Supreme Court found that the appellate court did not have authority to issue “statewide” relief, while the court left undisturbed the lower courts’ findings that defendants’ actions were likely unlawful and caused irreparable harm.

While this case was still on appeal before the Third Court of Appeals, the ACLU, the ACLU of Texas, Lambda Legal, and the law firm of Baker Botts LLP also filed a second lawsuit challenging the Governor, Commissioner, and DFPS’s actions in PFLAG v. Abbott. In 2024, the Third Court of Appeals vacated the injunction against the Governor, but otherwise affirmed.

UPDATE: In April 2026, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that this case and the PFLAG case “presented no controversy” because DFPS represented all the investigations have been administratively closed and that no further investigations would be necessary given that gender affirming medical care for minors is no longer lawful in Texas. The cases have been sent back to the Travis County District Court.

The temporary injunctions issued in this case and the PFLAG case prevented DFPS from pursuing wrongful child abuse investigations into Texas families for over four years.

For more information, please see this factsheet.