Under pressure from state, Texas hospital to create ‘gender detransition clinic’
A Houston-based children’s hospital that was investigated for providing gender-affirming care to minors has agreed to create the country’s first “gender detransition clinic.”
As part of a settlement with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas Children’s Hospital will offer free services to patients in its “detransition clinic.” The hospital also agreed to pay the state $10 million and to fire five doctors who Paxton said gave children gender-affirming care.
The clinic’s focus, according to a release from the Texas Attorney General’s Office, will be reversing the effects of previous care that aided patients’ gender transitions.
A spokesperson for Texas Children’s Hospital told Straight Arrow that the detransition clinic “will formalize the supportive, multidisciplinary services we already deliver to all patients who need our care.”
The Texas Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice began an investigation into Texas Children’s Hospital in 2023. That’s the year Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law banning trans kids from receiving puberty blockers, transition surgeries and hormone therapies.
In a statement, Paxton, a Republican who is running for the U.S. Senate against incumbent John Cornyn, called the settlement “historic” and said he applauded the hospital for “changing course” and agreeing to form the detransition clinic.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department will continue to “use every weapon at its disposal” to end gender-affirming care for children.
Texas Children’s said in a statement it “cooperated fully” with the investigation, “navigating an unconscionable campaign of mistruths and mischaracterizations related to gender affirming care.”
The hospital said it produced over five million documents and conducted its own internal and external investigations.
“These efforts have required significant staff time and financial resources to defend ourselves,” the hospital said. “All reviews and investigations continue to support the facts — we have been compliant with all laws.”
Texas Children’s maintained that it settled to protect its resources from “endless and costly litigation.”
“This settlement will allow us to redirect those precious resources to focus on the life-saving care and groundbreaking discoveries of our exceptional clinicians and scientists,” the hospital said. “We stand proud knowing we will always put our purpose over politics and that we have and will continue to follow the law.”
The settlement was criticized by advocates for the LGBTQ+ community.
“Paxton is blackmailing a hospital system into creating a resource that no one is asking for,” Brad Pritchett, the CEO of Equality Texas, said in a statement to Straight Arrow.
“It ignores the actual science and years of data about the overwhelming benefits of gender-affirming care, and it completely disregards the huge number of trans people who owe their lives to the very care Paxton is opposing,” Pritchett added. “It is embarrassing that a hospital once revered for its care has lost its integrity and put politics over patients.”
State Rep. Jessica González said on X that the settlement is “shameful, and the furthering of an agenda to eradicate transgender people from the eyes of society.”
“A state-mandated clinic for detransitioners is a political monument of Ken Paxton’s hateful legacy, not a care gap-filler,” she said, retweeting a Texas Tribune story on the topic.
Gender-affirming care is defined by the World Health Organization as any social, psychological, behavioral or medical treatment designed to support or affirm an individual’s gender identity. This can include, but is not limited to, surgery.
Studies have shown that gender-affirming surgeries on minors, while relatively rare, can lead to better mental health outcomes, including a reduction in depression, anxiety and suicidality.
Researchers have found that gender transition and related medical treatments for transgender people lead to an improved quality of life, greater relationship satisfaction, higher self-esteem and confidence, according to an analysis by Cornell University.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
