2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB1443
Effective September 1, 2025, HB1443 creates an offense for knowingly promoting, possessing with intent to promote, or possessing a statutorily defined child-like sex doll.
Official caption: Relating to creating the criminal offense of promotion or possession of a child-like sex doll.
Official report lists House author(s): Schatzline, Patterson, Holt, Richardson, Money. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- Effective September 1, 2025, HB1443 creates an offense for knowingly promoting, possessing with intent to promote, or possessing a statutorily defined child-like sex doll.
- These are ordinary statutory ranges; applicable repeat-offender and other sentencing rules can matter. “Promote” is broader than selling: the existing definition includes manufacturing, giving, lending, delivering, distributing, exhibiting and advertising, as well as offering or agreeing to those acts. “Obscene” is a legal term in the same subchapter, not simply a label for something offensive.
- Possessing two or more qualifying dolls creates a presumption of intent to promote.
What does it do?
Effective September 1, 2025, HB1443 creates an offense for knowingly promoting, possessing with intent to promote, or possessing a statutorily defined child-like sex doll. The definition requires an obscene, anatomically correct doll, mannequin or robot with the features of a child, intended for sexual stimulation or gratification. It is not a ban on every doll or anatomically correct teaching model. Final law
The three categories carry different ordinary penalties:
- Promotion: second-degree felony, 2–20 years in prison and a possible fine up to $10,000.
- Possession with intent to promote: third-degree felony, 2–10 years and a possible fine up to $10,000.
- Possession without proving intent to promote: state-jail felony, 180 days–two years and a possible fine up to $10,000.
These are ordinary statutory ranges; applicable repeat-offender and other sentencing rules can matter. “Promote” is broader than selling: the existing definition includes manufacturing, giving, lending, delivering, distributing, exhibiting and advertising, as well as offering or agreeing to those acts. “Obscene” is a legal term in the same subchapter, not simply a label for something offensive. Penal Code 43.21 definitions · Penalty ranges, 12.33–12.35
Possessing two or more qualifying dolls creates a presumption of intent to promote. It does not compel a jury to find that intent or dispense with proof of the other elements: Texas’s general presumption rules preserve those limits. Conversely, possessing only one is not a safe harbor—knowing possession is independently prohibited, and intent to promote can be proved without the numerical presumption. A bona fide law-enforcement purpose is an affirmative defense. Presumption rules, Penal Code 2.05
What changed along the way?
The introduced bill addressed promotion and possession with intent to promote, with lower penalties: third-degree felony and Class A misdemeanor respectively. It set the quantity presumption at six, not two. The House committee substitute added the separate possession offense, increased the promotion/intent penalties, and lowered the presumption to two. House substitute, engrossed, Senate committee and enrolled operative text match. Introduced · House substitute · Engrossed · Senate committee · Version index
The sole indexed floor amendment, Hickland’s House third-reading amendment, was withdrawn May 10, 2025. It would have restricted sales of obscene devices more broadly to qualifying sexually oriented businesses and authorized injunctions and civil penalties up to $5,000 per violation. Those proposed business restrictions and civil penalties are not in HB1443 as enacted. Withdrawn amendment · Amendment index and disposition
Governor Abbott signed HB1443 June 20, 2025. It passed the House 130–0, with two present but not voting, and the Senate 31–0. Official history
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
The law gives prosecutors a new tool aimed at the specified products and imposes criminal exposure on people who knowingly possess or promote them. Law enforcement must distinguish qualifying items and prove the applicable elements. The act does not supply evidence quantifying a reduction in child abuse or establish that possessing these items proves an offense against an actual child.
The Legislative Budget Board could not determine state or local fiscal costs because it lacked data on how common the newly prohibited conduct was. Additional cases could increase court and correctional demands. The comptroller noted possible additional court-cost revenue, but could not estimate it. These are unknown impacts, not a finding of no cost; the notes provide no quantified two-year or five-year total. The later fiscal notes and criminal-justice statements reflect the final three penalty categories. Introduced fiscal note · Substitute fiscal note · Latest fiscal note · Latest criminal-justice impact statement
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.