Texas is seeing a growing number of lawsuits against doctors who violate state law by prescribing puberty blockers and hormones to minors under the guise of “gender-affirming care.”
On October 17, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Dr. May Lau, a pediatrician and professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The complaint alleges that Lau administered hormone blockers to 21 children after they became illegal in the state and then “falsified” medical records, billing records and prescriptions to deny the treatment she provided. It is alleged that the appearance of the company was manipulated.
Less than two weeks later, Paxton removed Dr. Hector Granados, an El Paso-area pediatric endocrinologist and known “gender care” provider, for “undermining the health and safety of Texas children.” filed a lawsuit. Paxton’s lawsuit against Granados alleges the doctor falsified medical records, prescriptions and billing records to “deliberately conceal illegal activity” in violation of Texas law.
On November 4, the city of Paxton named a third doctor, Dr. M. Brett Cooper, in a lawsuit for allegedly providing “sex change” drugs to minors, which was prohibited under Texas law. .
Paxton said in a statement that Texas is “crackdown” on doctors who continue to illegally prescribe such drugs to minors and that they “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Paxton has strong legal backing. Both cases hinge on recently passed Texas law SB 14, which was upheld by the Texas Supreme Court in June 2024. The law states that health care providers may not “affirm a child’s gender identity if it does not correspond to the child’s biological sex.” Health care providers cannot prescribe puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to children for the purpose of changing gender expression. If found guilty, the doctor could lose his license and be fined $1 million.
power of the nation
The U.S. health care system is structured so that states and state medical boards, rather than the federal government, primarily determine licensing and regulate practice. However, state medical boards are failing to protect the public.
The Texas Medical Board said it would not comment on Lau or Granados.
“As the regulatory agency that oversees physician licensure and discipline, the TMB is responsible for ensuring the quality of health care in Texas,” Spencer Miller Payne, public information officer for the Texas Medical Board, said in response to emailed questions. It plays an important role.” “The commission’s primary responsibility is to protect the public health and safety by enforcing the standards that physicians and other licensed professionals must meet within the state.”
He said complaints received by the board go through due process and follow standard procedures for determining violations of the Medical Practitioners Act. If a licensee is found to have violated Texas law, the board must revoke the license.
“At a time when gender-affirming care has been touted as the ‘gold standard’ by the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) and the Endocrine Society, we need judges willing to stand up to the medical establishment,” explains Dr. Jill Simmons. Executive Director of the American Academy of Pediatrics, an alternative medicine committee that opposes the practice of gender reassignment.
Resistance to compelling data
The Cass review, leaked files of the World Association of Transgender Health Professionals, and a growing number of studies contribute to bans on “gender reassignment care” in some Western countries, but a leading U.S. medical commissioner The association announced its determination not to change its policy.
So lawsuits and trials are the most effective means to end these practices, said Merrill Matthews, a health policy expert who serves on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ Texas Advisory Committee. State lawsuits have the potential to reduce treatment of transgender people, but as long as some states still allow it, minors can still cross state lines. “This is a necessary step, but it is not sufficient,” Matthews said.
Matthews said civil lawsuits brought by people who were minors at the time of their gender-affirming care would be the most effective way to stop the practice. “Those who received this ‘care’ as minors now have to explain the lifelong medical challenges they now face and how they and their parents believe they were (deceived) into making the transition.” If you explain this to the jury, they will be awarded a large award.”
For transgender care centers and doctors, these fines can amount to millions of dollars, Matthews said. “Then malpractice insurance will no longer cover centers and clinics. And as the profit factor is removed and jury awards pile up, providers will be forced to stand still.”
Small plaintiffs’ law firms, such as Campbell Miller Payne in Dallas, already specialize in such cases. Attorney Jordan Campbell said the company has heard from about 125 potential plaintiffs and trial dates have been set for several cases. Other lawsuits have pending dates, and more are expected to be filed soon.
Matthews said more lawsuits are likely to follow if the plaintiffs are successful in multiple lawsuits and the actual punitive damages amount to be in the millions of dollars.
federal intervention
Historically, doctors have regulated themselves within the profession, Simons said. “That’s really what should happen: If there’s something new or something that’s not working, we get together within the organization and discuss it,” she said. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen anymore, so it’s now going to court.”
President-elect Donald Trump has outlined plans to support legislation that would allow people who underwent “gender transition” procedures as minors to sue the doctors involved. His plan would rescind gender-affirming care policies, ban federal aid for gender transitions, deny Medicare and Medicaid certification to health care providers who provide gender treatment to minors, and It also includes investigating the drug companies and medical providers used.
Under the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, “the Department of Health and Human Services may seek to issue guidance or regulations that would effectively ban the practice[of administering hormones or surgery to transgender children].” Matthews said. “The Republican-controlled House and Senate could prepare legislation to stop this practice, and Mr. Trump will likely sign it.”
Ashley Bateman is a policy writer at the Heartland Institute and a blogger at Ascension Press. Her work has been featured in the Washington Times, Daily Caller, New York Post, American Thinker, and numerous other publications. She previously worked as an adjunct research fellow at the Lexington Institute and as an editor, writer, and photographer for Warner Weekly, a publication serving the American military community in Bamberg, Germany. Ashley is a board member of the Catholic Homeschool Cooperative of Virginia. She homeschools four wonderful children with her brilliant engineer/scientist husband.
