Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced today that he is going after a second Texas doctor for providing gender-affirming healthcare to transgender minors.
This is the second doctor Paxton has sued this month. He filed a similar lawsuit against a North Texas doctor on Oct. 17.
According to a press release from his office, Paxton has “sued an El Paso doctor for illegally providing ‘gender transition’ treatments to Texas children. In some cases, the patients were as young as 12.”
Every recognized medical association has declared gender-affirming healthcare not only safe for transgender youth but, in many cases, to be life-saving treatment. And despite claims from right-wing sources, gender-transition surgery is not performed on or recommended for children.
Texas Republicans, however, have made attacks on the transgender community, including gender-affirming healthcare for minors, part of their policy base. Last year, right-wing lawmakers passed Senate Bill 14, which prohibits gender-affirming health care including surgery, puberty blockers and “cross-sex hormones” for trans children under 18.
Despite the general consensus in the medical community, opponents claim that “‘gender transition’ interventions prescribed to or performing on children in an attempt to anatomically or hormonally alter their biological sex characteristics have damaging, long-term consequences,” Paxton’s press release claims.
The press release also claims that “the prohibited treatments are experimental, and no scientific evidence supports their supposed benefits” – science, however, disputes that assertion.
Paxton’s press release notes that “medical providers who violate SB 14 are liable for penalties, and the law also directs that the Texas Medical Board ‘shall revoke the medical license or other authorization to practice medicine of a physician who violates’ the statute.”
Paxton’s latest lawsuit targets an El Paso-based doctor who, he claims, “violated the law by knowingly providing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children for the purpose of ‘transitioning’ their biological sex. Further, he engaged in false, misleading, and deceptive acts to intentionally conceal the unlawful conduct by falsifying medical records, prescriptions, and billing records.”
Paxton warned that the state is “cracking down on doctors illegally prescribing dangerous ‘gender transition’ drugs to children. … Any physician found doing so will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
— Tammye Nash