Donald Trump greets Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2019 Photo: JAY JANNER / USA TODAY NETWORK via IMAGN
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) continued his crusade against gender-affirming care for trans youth in the state with a new lawsuit filed against a doctor accused of illegally prescribing and distributing puberty blockers and hormones to minor patients.
It’s Paxton’s second attack on gender-affirming care in the weeks leading up to Election Day.
Related:
The lawsuit filed in Texas district court accuses El Paso physician Hector M. Granados of providing gender-affirming care to multiple patients, as well as falsifying medical and billing records in an effort to mislead pharmacies and insurance providers.
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The lawsuit labels Granados a “scofflaw who is harming the health and safety of Texas children.”
Paxton is acting on a bill signed last year by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that forbids doctors from administering medical interventions to “transition a child’s biological sex” or affirm that their gender identity is inconsistent with their sex at birth. The Texas Supreme Court upheld the ban in June.
“Texas is cracking down on doctors illegally prescribing dangerous ‘gender transition’ drugs to children,” Paxton said in a statement. “State law forbids prescribing these interventions to minors because they have irreversible and damaging effects. Any physician found doing so will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
According to Paxton’s office, Granados wasn’t notified of the impending suit before it was filed, believing the physician likely “would destroy” or alter “relevant records if prior contact were made.”
Two weeks ago, Paxton filed another suit against a Dallas doctor accused of prescribing estrogen and testosterone to 21 minor patients. Dr. May Chi Lau, a provider at Children’s Hospital in Dallas, “allegedly used false diagnoses and billing codes to mask these unlawful prescriptions,” the lawsuit states, “blatantly” violating Texas law.
Paxton falsely referred in that suit to gender-affirming care as “dangerous and experimental medical procedures.” A press release from his office asserts that “no scientific evidence supports [the] supposed benefits” of gender-affirming medication.
The Texas law contradicts best care practices for treating gender dysphoria recommended by every major American medical association, all of whom agree that gender-affirming care is safe, effective, and essential for the overall well-being of trans people.
The suit against Lau was the first of its kind in the state. Doctors convicted under Texas’s Senate Bill 14 face losing their medical licenses and incurring financial penalties of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Twenty-four states ban best-practice care for transgender youth, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Six of those make it a felony crime to provide the same care. Some bans are held up in court.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Donald Trump have pledged to enact a nationwide ban on the practice if they’re reelected.
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