番茄社区

Texas Children's Hospital is under investigation by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over the hospital's provision of gender-affirming care to youth.

It is the second such investigation announced this month, following one launched on May 5 into Dell Children's Medical Center regarding its gender-affirming treatments for young patients.

"I've been clear that any 'gender transitioning' procedures that hurt our children constitute child abuse under Texas law," Paxton said in his the probe last Friday. "Recent reports indicate that Texas Children's Hospital may be unlawfully performing such procedures, and my office is working to uncover the truth."

In a statement emailed to 番茄社区, a Texas Children's Hospital spokesperson said, "At Texas Children's Hospital, our mission is to provide high-quality care for all patients. Throughout the policy debate surrounding gender medicine, our healthcare professionals have always and will continue to prioritize the care of our patients within the bounds of the law."

"Appointments are not being cancelled," the spokesperson added.

Paxton's announcement came after City Journal, a publication from the conservative think-tank Manhattan Institute, posted medical documents from an undisclosed source. These included records of gender-affirming medical treatments at the hospital and slides from an internal PowerPoint presentation.

The post claimed that the hospital "secretly continued to perform transgender medical interventions" despite announcing plans last spring to cease them. The hospital's announcement followed Paxton issued last year that claimed gender-affirming care for minors constituted child abuse and called for the state's Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate any "reports" of this care as such.

In May of 2022, the Supreme Court of Texas stating the Attorney General's opinion and a subsequent letter to DFPS was not legally binding.

"The AG seems to be relying, again, on the opinion as a basis to launch these investigations and what the AG is asking for, in part, looks to be private patient medical records, which are covered by both state and federal law, privacy and confidentiality provisions, such that those should not be turned over to the attorney general," Shelly Skeen, a senior attorney for Lambda Legal, told 番茄社区. That firm, together with the Transgender Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, is suing Texas over its proposed gender-affirming care ban, SB 14.

SB 14 from performing surgery, providing puberty blocking drugs, and providing hormone therapy to minors for the purpose of gender transition -- though these treatments would still be available for other minors (who, for example, are experiencing precocious puberty or have a "medically verifiable genetic disorder"). Physicians can have their license revoked for giving this care. The law awaits a signature by the governor, and would not go into effect until September 1.

Paxton's statement accompanied a "" or "RTE" issued to Texas Children's Hospital, which asks for a list of 25 different kinds of documents supporting their provision of gender-affirming care, including "Documents Related to TCH's use of puberty blockers on Minors with the consent of their parent" and "Documents sufficient to Identify any individuals or entities to whom You refer Minor patients for counseling or treatment."

"What it [the investigation] does is it's chilling these healthcare providers from providing the healthcare, not unlike what we saw with SB 8 [Texas' abortion ban]," Skeen said.

In , Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said, "If you care about Texas kids, you should be appalled that someone would be illicitly disclosing their medical records."

"If providing this type of care for children were currently illegal, we wouldn't see Republican legislators spending all their waking hours trying to pass SB 14, which bans gender-affirming care," Menefee added.

Skeen noted that gender-affirming care is given with the agreement of doctors who practice within the standard of care, parents who are acting in the best interest of their children, and adolescents themselves, who consent to treatment.

"When you have all three things, three of those coming together, which is what you have here, then those rights to be able to make those decisions are at their very highest," she said. "So why is it that we have our legislators and our governor walking into this space and making decisions for people when they are not living it every day?"

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