'This is about protecting children': Gun control foe Greg Abbott will sign ban on gender-affirming care

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) pledged to sign legislation into law that would outlaw gender-affirming care for most residents under eighteen years of age in the Lone Star State.

CNN reported on Thursday that Senate Bill 14 — which the Republican-dominated State Senate sent to Abbott's desk late Wednesday night — "would block a minor's access to gender reassignment surgeries, puberty-blocking medication, and hormone therapies, and providing this care to trans youth would lead to the revocation of a health care provider's license."

CNN noted that the restrictions will take effect on September 1st.

READ MORE: 'A death sentence': How one trans Texas teen is navigating bans on gender-affirming care

"I'm not, not gonna make any secret about it. I'll be signing it," Abbott told Fox News host Harris Faulkner.

"This is about protecting children," insisted Abbott, who has refused to take any meaningful action to reduce gun violence.

"Now remember this, and that is a person under the age of eighteen, they don't have the mental capacity to make a life-changing decision to lose their sex organs. And in the State of Texas, if you're under the age of eighteen, you can't get a tattoo, you can't buy cigarettes, and so many other things. But people think that they should be able to make a decision to permanently alter their sex organs? That's just outrageous," the governor asserted. "In Texas, we believe, uh, that cutting off the child's sex organs is child abuse, and it's gonna be treated that way by law."

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: Texas Supreme Court rules in favor of state inflicting 'irreparable harm' on transgender kids