Texas Children’s Hospital to Open First Detransition Clinic Under Paxton Settlement

Just a few months after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a settlement agreement with Texas Children’s Hospital, the facility has 90 days to implement a detransition clinic.

In February, Paxton sued Texas Children’s Hospital and a Dallas-area doctor for illegally transitioning children and engaging in Medicaid fraud, which made taxpayers cover the costs for the procedures.

The lawsuit stemmed from the Texas Legislature passing Senate Bill 14, which codified a statewide ban on gender-transition interventions for minors, including mutilative surgeries and cross-sex hormone therapies.

In May, an out-of-court civil settlement was reached that required the hospital to pay “$10 million for billing Texas Medicaid for unallowable and illegal ‘gender-transition’ interventions, including by using false diagnosis codes; and compels the termination and revocation of privileges of multiple physicians.”

The settlement also required the hospital to create the first-ever multidisciplinary clinic designed to provide medical care for children who underwent transition procedures. The destransition clinic will provide care to address the effects of those procedures, and the first five years of the clinic’s operation will be fully funded by the hospital and free to patients seeking medical care.

The hospital also agreed to fire and “permanently and irrevocably terminate all existing privileges, and never again hire or credential” the five doctors who performed transition procedures on Texas children.

Since May, Paxton has announced that the settlement has been finalized and that the hospital has 90 days to create the nation’s first detransition clinic.

“This historic settlement is a resounding defeat for the radical gender ideology that has preyed on Texas children under the guise of ‘care,’” Paxton said in a press release.

“Texas Children’s has agreed to pay millions back to Texas. The detransition clinic, which is the first of its kind, must open within months. Activist doctors who harmed children have been fired. This settlement sends an unmistakable message: if you put radical ideology over children’s health, my office will go after you. We will continue to lead the way in stopping the far-left’s radical gender agenda.” 

The detransition clinic must open its doors by the end of October.

Similar to the Texas settlement, the Cleveland Clinic reached a settlement with the state of Ohio and is required to commit funds toward a specialized detransition care for individuals who underwent transition procedures as minors.

Twenty-five other states have passed laws banning transition procedures for minors, including Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Kansas’ law is temporarily blocked as litigation continues, while Montana’s law is permanently blocked as litigation proceeds.