Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, perhaps concerned that he is not getting enough traction in his effort to unseat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the 2026 GOP Primary, is once again attacking transgender Texans and their health care providers.
Paxton announced today (Wednesday, Dec. 10) that that his Healthcare Program Enforcement Division has “taken first-of-their kind legal actions to hold two North Texas physicians accountable for illegally administering ‘gender transition’ drugs to minors and then fraudulently billing Texas Medicaid.”
Paxton filed suit against Dr. May Lau and Dr. M. Brett Cooper in late 2024 for providing gender-affirming health care to transgender minors. Dr. Lau responded by surrendering her license to practice medicine in Texas then moved to Oregon where transphobic politicians are less likely to interfere in private medical decisions.
In October and November 2024, Attorney General Paxton sued May Lau and M. Brett Cooper, who are doctors who prescribed “gender transition” drugs to dozens of Texas children in violation of Texas law. Earlier this year, May Lau surrendered her medical license following Attorney General Paxton’s lawsuit against her.
Paxton had sued a third physician, Dr. Hector Granados of El Paso, but in September this year had to quietly drop that suit and admitting his minions weren’t able to find or fabricate evidence against Granados.
Now Paxton is claiming that his office “gathered new evidence” indicating there were “deliberate efforts to conceal illegal activity by falsifying records, altering diagnosis codes and submitting deceptive billing information, which is conduct that supports new healthcare fraud claims.”
According to a press release from his office — topped by the dramatic headline “Attorney General Paxton Files Landmark Healthcare Fraud Lawsuit Against Doctors Who Illegally Forced ‘Gender Transition’ Drugs on Kids” — “By submitting deceptive billing records, Lau and Cooper were able to conceal the ‘gender transition’ interventions and secure Medicaid reimbursement for services that Texas law and Texas Medicaid explicitly do not allow.”
(It is worth noting that while the doctors being sued may have provided gender-affirming care to trans children, no one forced anything on the children. The very idea that physicians and parents and teachers and anybody else are “forcing” children to transition is utterly ridiculous and is nothing more than a ploy by corrupt right-wing politicians to inflame the anger of their less-than-properly-informed voting base.”
For that reason, Paxton has added Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act claims to the cases against each doctor, “marking the first time any state in the nation has brought healthcare fraud allegations against medical providers for unlawful ‘gender transitioning’ on children,” the press release says, adding, “With this, [Paxton] is seeking three times the amount of improperly paid Medicaid funds and substantial civil penalties for each unlawful act to hold the physicians accountable to Texas law and ensure that Texas is repaid for the evil performed by the doctors.
The press release quotes Paxton as saying, “What these radicals were doing was evil, and I will pursue every available legal tool to stop and punish this cruel child abuse. Any fraudulent scheme to steal hardworking Texans’ taxpayer dollars will be stopped and repaid in full. Under my watch, the transgender activists using their positions in the medical field to illegally ‘transition’ children will face the full force of the law.”
— Tammye Nash