Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) is establishing the nation’s first transition clinic. This is a surprising development that resulted from a post-litigation settlement. The move comes after TCH entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to block puberty blockers and child surgeries.
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“Texas Children’s Hospital violated state law when the state Legislature passed a Texas law that says puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and amputations are no longer allowed on minors,” Matt Staver, president of the conservative law firm Liberty Counsel, told CBN News. “Texas Children’s Hospital violated that law and then changed its medical code in a way that people who were looking at this hospital for state funding reimbursement couldn’t understand that they were actually violating the law. So they … issued a billing code for something other than what they were doing.”
Staver mentioned Dr. Ethan Heim, a Texas physician who became a whistleblower after speaking out about what was happening at Texas Children’s Hospital. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) signed Senate Bill 14 of 2023, which seeks to block children from receiving hormone therapy and puberty blockers.
“(Heim) was threatened with revocation of his license and ruined career by Texas Children’s Hospital because Texas Children’s Hospital wanted to continue mutilating children even though it was against the law,” Staver said. “And they wanted the whistleblowers to be silenced. That caught the attention of the state and Attorney General Ken Paxton, and he went after Texas Children’s Hospital, which led to this historic settlement.”
Mr. Staver explained that Mr. Paxton pursued TCH and took legal action against them. This led to the aforementioned “historic settlement,” which required TCH to stop providing puberty blockers, hormones, and other gender transition efforts.
In addition, TCH was required to establish a transition clinic to help those harmed by the medical industry, and five doctors were also laid off.
“They must establish America’s first so-called detransition complex clinic and run it for free for at least five years at their own expense so that those who have been harmed can come there and receive free treatment to undo some of the harm that Texas Children’s Hospital and others who promote this ideology have done,” Staver said. “But there’s more to the settlement than that: $10 million must be paid for the fraudulent code.”
Paxton’s office released a statement last month praising this moment as an important move to provide justice for children and young people harmed by doctors.
“This transition clinic will help patients recover from harm caused by ideologically motivated physicians who have harmed patients by performing dangerous medical interventions with the goal of ‘transitioning’ them,” it reads. “For the first five years, all services provided through the transition clinic will be funded by Texas Children’s Hospital and provided free to patients.”
Staver said he believes the outcome of the lawsuit should send a powerful message that will resonate across the country. He hopes the conditions will encourage hospitals and other institutions to “stop harming children.”
Staver said it was “heartbreaking” to see the impact he observed on young people who witnessed the change and regretted it.
“The heartbreaking thing is that we have filed 28 lawsuits against health care workers, hospitals, doctors and counselors for giving them such bad advice and causing them bodily harm,” he said. “And as we move forward, that number will continue to grow exponentially.”
“But the sad truth is that the kids that parents bring in have real problems. They may be on the autism spectrum, they may have depression, anxiety, body image issues, anorexia, bulimia, whatever it is, they may have serious real mental illness. It’s an issue that needs to be addressed,” Staver continued.
But Staver said these people were being given “misinformation” instead of treatment, which failed to treat the underlying condition, with some doctors recommending puberty blockers, sex hormones and even surgery instead. These people are sold the lie that they were “born in the wrong body.”
“Desperately, these parents and children are relying on that misinformation,” he said. “They go down this path the same way Chloe Cole did. In Chloe’s case, she had a double mastectomy before she was an adult. Then, as an adult, she realized that the underlying problem had never been resolved. Her symptoms got worse.”
Staver believes transitional clinics provide an opportunity for people to receive treatment if they come to the same place during their journey.
As for TCH, the agency previously issued a statement saying it complied with the law and decided to settle because of “falsehoods” in the lawsuit. The company also claimed it already provides the services it is currently required to create, according to Houston Public Media.
“The transition clinic formalizes the supportive, multidisciplinary services we already provide to all patients who require our care,” the statement reads. “This simply provides a structure and name for the services we currently offer.”
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