The nation’s largest pediatric hospital has paused hormone therapies due to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s recent executive order authorizing child abuse probes into parents and doctors who facilitate gender-transition surgeries or hormone treatments for children.
“The mission of Texas Children’s Hospital is to create a healthier future for all children, including transgender children, within the bounds of the law…This step was taken to safeguard our healthcare professionals and impacted families from potential criminal legal ramifications,” a spokesperson for the hospital wrote in a statement released Friday.
Abbott’s directive comes after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton published an opinion that established the child’s liberty interest in retaining their reproductive faculties and classified transition procedures as “child abuse.” The assessment applies to hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and sex reassignment surgery in the state of Texas.
Following the hospital’s decision, Abbott tweeted, “Glad to hear that today Texas Children’s Hospital halted their child-abuse procedures.”
The Houston hospital wasn’t the first in the state to eliminate gender-related medical treatments in response to criticism. GENECIS, a Dallas-based health program that provided hormone therapy to transgender children, discontinued services in November after it faced child abuse allegations, Khou11 reported.
Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union and its Texas chapter scored a victory in court against the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), which initiated the parent probes. The judge issued a restraining order against DFPS to prevent the agency from investigating the plaintiffs in the case: the parents of 16-year-old transgender teen, one of whom works at DCPS, the teen, and a licensed psychologist.
The lawsuit accused Abbott, the DFPS, and the agency’s commissioner of infringing on the liberties of transgender children by denying them equal protection under law.
“Their actions caused terror and anxiety among transgender youth and their families across the Lone Star State and singled out transgender youth and their families for discrimination and harassment,” the groups wrote in their petition.
Texas has been at the forefront of countering the medical community’s gradual adoption of practices that facilitate gender transition, especially in children. In December, Paxton launched a probe into two pharmaceutical companies that allegedly promoted expensive puberty-blocking drugs for children, despite them lacking FDA approval to treat gender dysphoria.