In Texas, cases are abounding against doctors who contravented state laws by prescribing juveniles with hormones and puberty blockers under the pretense of “gender affirming treatment.”
Dr. May Lau, a physician and professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, was sued on October 17 by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The lawsuit claims that Lau “falsified” health and accounting records and prescriptions to alter the appearance of the treatment she provided by treating 21 children with testosterone blockers after the state made the practice illegal.
Less than two weeks later, Paxton filed another match accusing Dr. Hector Granados, an El Paso-area neonatal endocrinologist and known “gender care” company, of “harming the health and safety of Texas kids”. Paxton’s match against Granados alleges the doctor falsified medical records, treatments, and accounting records to “intentionally suppress the unconstitutional conduct in contravention” of Texas law.  ,
On Nov. 4 Paxton named a second doctor, Dr. M. Brett Cooper, in a lawsuit for allegedly providing “gender change” medicines to adolescents after Texas laws forbade it.
Paxton stated in a statement that Texas is” cracking down” on doctors who continue to improperly administer for medications to minors and that they will be prosecuted to the full amount of the law.
Paxton has powerful legal support. Both lawsuits are based on just passed Texas rules SB 14 that was upheld by the Texas Supreme Court in June 2024. If a boy’s perception of their sexual is incompatible with their biological sex, according to the law, healthcare providers may not “affirm” that perception. Children who are prescribed cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers with the intention of altering their female expression are not permitted to receive these medications. Doctors could be subject to a prospective$ 1 million fine and certification if found guilty.  ,  ,
Strength of the States
The U. S. health system is structured so that states and express health boards, not the federal government, generally consider licensure and control practice. However, the public is not being protected by state medical boards.  ,
The Texas Medical Board declined to address the cases of Lau and Granados.
In response to emailed inquiries, Spencer Miller-Payne, communications officer at the Texas Medical Board, responded to questions from the regulatory body overseeing the licensing and discipline of physicians. By enforcing requirements that doctors and other licensed professionals in the state must adhere to, the board’s primary responsibility is to protect public health and safety.
According to him, the board receives all necessary legal proceedings and examines complaints for violations of the Medical Practice Act. The board has the authority to revoke a licensee if they are found to be breaking Texas law.  ,
” Now that gender affirming care has been publicized as a’ gold standard’ by the AAP]the American Academy of Pediatrics ] and Endocrine Society, you need judges that are willing to go against a group of doctors”, explains Dr. Jill Simons, executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, an alternative medical board that has spoken out against the practice of gender transitioning.  ,
Refutation of Confusing Data
Major American medical boards have stated a determination to stay the same course despite the Cass Review, the leaked World Professional Association for Transgender Health files, and growing numbers of studies that have resulted in “gender transition care” being banned in some Western nations.  ,
According to Merrill Matthews, a health policy expert who sits on the Texas Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, legal action and court cases are the best way to stop these practices. Although state lawsuits have the potential to lower transgender rights, minors can still cross state lines as long as some states permit it. ” It is a necessary, but not sufficient step”, Matthews said.
Civil lawsuits, filed by people who were minors at the time of the gender-affirming care, will be the most effective way to stop these practices, Matthews said. When people who underwent this” care” as minors explain to juries the lifelong medical difficulties they are currently facing and how they believe their parents and they were deceived into transitioning, those juries will be awarding significant prizes.
For transgender care centers and physicians, those penalties could amount to millions of dollars, Matthews said. The centers and practices would then no longer be covered by malpractice insurance. And now that jury awards are being collected, health care providers must stop.
Small plaintiffs ‘ law firms, such as Campbell Miller Payne in Dallas, are already specializing in these cases. According to attorney Jordan Campbell, the firm has received about 125 potential plaintiffs ‘ requests and has set trial dates in several cases. In addition, additional cases have pending and more will be filed soon.  ,
More lawsuits will follow, according to Matthews, if several are decided for plaintiffs and actual and punitive damages exceed$ 1 billion.  ,
Federal Intervention
Historically, physicians have regulated themselves within the profession, Simons said. ” That is what actually should happen, if something is new or not working, we come together within our organizations and discuss”, she said. ” Unfortunately, that is no longer happening, so now it is going to the courts”.
Donald Trump, the president-elect, has laid out a strategy to support legislation that would allow minors who underwent “gender transition” procedures to sue the doctors involved. His plan would also revoke gender-affirming care standards, ban federal support for gender transition, impose restrictions on Medicare and Medicaid certification for gender treatment for minors, and investigate pharmaceutical companies and providers who have used these treatments.  ,
According to Matthews, the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services may seek to make recommendations or rules that effectively outlaw the giving of transgender hormones and surgeries to children. Legislation that would stop the practice could be developed by a GOP-controlled House and Senate. Trump is likely to sign it, too.
Ashley Bateman blogs for Ascension Press and writes for The Heartland Institute about policy. Her work has been featured in The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, The New York Post, The American Thinker and numerous other publications. She previously held positions as editor, writer, and photographer for The Warner Weekly, a publication for the German-speaking American military community in Bamberg. A Catholic homeschool cooperative in Virginia has Ashley on the board. Along with her brilliant engineer/scientist husband, she educates four of her incredible children at home.
