On October 24, Greg Abbott's campaign released a new ad against his Democratic opponent, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, under the title "Transition Your Kids – or Face Prosecution." Its central claim is that Hinojosa "voted to allow for parents to be prosecuted for child abuse" if they refuse to go along with their child's gender identity.
The vote the ad points to is on House Bill 1106, from last year's legislative session. Here's what that bill actually did, what Hinojosa's vote actually did, and who in Texas has actually sent the state after parents of transgender kids.
What HB 1106 says
HB 1106 is a short bill about the definitions of child abuse and neglect in the Texas Family Code. It adds one exception to each. "Abuse," it says, does not include a parent's refusal to affirm "a child's perception of the child's gender, including a refusal to use a child's preferred name or pronouns," or a child's expressed sexual orientation. Neglect gets the same exception.
That's the whole bill. It doesn't create a crime or repeal one; it narrows the definitions Texas uses in child-protection cases.
What Hinojosa's vote did
Hinojosa voted against it. So did 58 other House members, including James Talarico, the Democrat now running for U.S. Senate. It passed the House 85 to 59 on May 14, 2025.
It then passed the Senate, and Abbott signed it on June 20, 2025. It has been law since September 1, 2025.
So Hinojosa's "no" vote didn't "allow" anything. The bill she opposed is on the books, signed by the man running the ad. A governor can't rewrite the Family Code alone.
Who actually sent the state after parents
There is a Texas governor who ordered child-abuse investigations of parents over how they raise a transgender child. It's Greg Abbott.
On February 22, 2022, Abbott sent a letter directing the Department of Family and Protective Services to "investigate any reported instances of minors undergoing sex reassignment procedures or taking hormones" as child abuse. The letter followed an opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton, and under it doctors and the general public would have a "duty to report" those families.
Families sued. In May 2022, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the agency was not required to follow Abbott's letter, since the Legislature gave the job of investigating child abuse to the agency, not the governor: "DFPS was not compelled by law to follow them." The same ruling lifted a statewide block on the investigations, so the agency could keep pursuing other families.
That is the order of events. Abbott tried to make supporting a transgender child's medical care into child abuse. Now his ad accuses his opponent of wanting to treat parents who don't support it the same way, based on a vote against a bill he signed.
Part of a pattern
It isn't the first time this fall that Abbott's campaign has told Texans something about Hinojosa that her record doesn't back up:
- A $12 million ad claims she voted 40 times to raise property taxes. The Houston Chronicle found she never directly voted to raise property taxes.
- A campaign-run X account added a transgender pride flag to a photo of her talking with a child about a closed school.
- On October 25 he told Fox News she "supports Sharia law" because a Muslim civil rights group endorsed her.
What the record shows
Greg Abbott's ad says Gina Hinojosa "voted to allow for parents to be prosecuted for child abuse." The vote it cites was against HB 1106, a bill saying a parent's refusal to affirm a child's gender is not abuse — a bill that passed and that Abbott signed into law in June 2025. In 2022, Abbott was the one who ordered the state to investigate parents of transgender children for child abuse.
Source
AD: Transition Your Kids – or Face Prosecution — Texans for Greg Abbott
