Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, a Republican, has ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective services (DFPS) to investigate the children and doctors who enable and approve gender-transition surgeries for children.

Abbott’s measure comes after DFPS confirmed that gender-transition surgery on children constitutes as child abuse, after Abbot had asked the department to look into, and make a determination on the matter last August.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also said earlier this week that gender-transition procedures, including hormone therapy, puberty blockers and sex reassignment procedures, are abuse under existing Texas law.

On Tuesday, Abbott wrote in a letter to DFPS directing it to “conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas.”

The governor’s letter states that the attorney general’s opinion “makes clear, it is already against the law to subject Texas children to a wide variety of elective procedures for gender transitioning, including reassignment surgeries that can cause sterilization, mastectomies, removals of otherwise health body parts, and administration of puberty-blocking drugs or supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or estrogen.”

“Texas law imposes reporting requirements upon all licensed professionals who have direct contact with children who may be subject to such abuse, including doctors, nurses, and teachers, and provides criminal penalties for failure to report such child abuse.” Abbott wrote.

The letter was also sent to other Texas agencies, including the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the Texas Medical Board and the Texas Education Agency.

When the determination was made by DFPS commissioner Jaime Masters in August, the letter to Abbott stated, “Genital mutilation of a child through reassignment surgery is child abuse. This surgical procedure physically alters a child’s genitalia for non-medical purposes potentially inflicting irreversible harm to children’s bodies.”

“Masters cited Section 261 of the Texas Family Code that prohibits parents from imposing substantial physical harm onto their children” reports National Review. “The commissioner added at the time that anyone who believes a child has undergone gender-transition surgery must report it to the DFPS and that all allegations involving the procedure on minors will be taken seriously and investigated.”