{"id":672424,"date":"2026-05-16T01:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T01:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/672424\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T01:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T01:53:08","slug":"texas-childrens-hospital-to-create-clinic-reversing-trans-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/672424\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Children\u2019s Hospital to create clinic reversing trans care"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Texas attorney general has secured an unusual settlement over child transgender care that compels Texas Children\u2019s Hospital to create the nation\u2019s first ever \u201cdetransition clinic\u201d in addition to paying the state $10 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a>, the multidisciplinary clinic would offer medical care to patients \u201cwho were subjected to \u2018gender-transition\u2019 procedures.\u201d The care would be free to patients for the first five years of the clinic\u2019s operation. The move follows an investigation that began in 2023<\/a> by the attorney general\u2019s office into Texas Children\u2019s Hospital in Houston. That same year, Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> signed Senate Bill 14<\/a> that bars<\/a> transgender children from receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapies.<\/p>\n

Gender-affirming care is an umbrella term for the treatment of gender dysphoria, or the discomfort that comes when someone\u2019s gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender-affirming care ranges from \u201csocially transitioning\u201d \u2014 using different pronouns or dressing differently \u2014 to puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a monumental day in the fight to stop the radical transgender movement,\u201d Paxton said in a statement issued Friday. \u201cI applaud Texas Children\u2019s Hospital for changing course and committing to being a part of the solution by agreeing to form a first-of-its kind Detransition Clinic that will help provide free care to those who have been victimized by twisted, morally bankrupt transgender ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas Children\u2019s will fund all services provided through the \u201cdetransition clinic\u201d for the first five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The settlement also requires the hospital to pay $10 million for billing Texas Medicaid after the state accused the hospital of illegal gender-transition interventions, including by using false diagnosis codes. It also required Texas Children\u2019s to terminate and revoke the medical privileges of five physicians. Paxton\u2019s office and the hospital have not released the name of the physicians or a copy of the settlement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texas Children\u2019s, the nation\u2019s largest pediatric hospital based in the heart of the Texas Medical Center, said in a statement that it made the \u201cdifficult decision\u201d to settle with the attorney general\u2019s office to close a legal chapter that has been, \u201cwrought with falsehoods and distractions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The hospital said it spent three three years producing more than 5 million documents to both the state and the U.S. Department of Justice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll reviews and investigations continue to support the facts \u2013 we have been compliant with all laws,\u201d the hospital statement said. \u201cTo be clear \u2013 we are settling to protect our resources from endless and costly litigation \u2026 We stand proud knowing we will always put our purpose over politics and that we have and will continue to follow the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Texas Medical Association and Texas Hospital Association declined to answer questions for the story.<\/p>\n

Unclear what services clinic will provide<\/p>\n

Texas Children\u2019s did not say how it will roll out its clinic or what services it will provide, though the hospital said in the statement that the clinic will include \u201csupportive, multidisciplinary services we already deliver to all patients who need our care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Detransitioning<\/a> is the stopping or reversal of transitioning care by social, medical or legal means, and it is rare for people to regret transitioning after taking hormone therapy and surgical interventions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the clinical side, detransitioning could mean stopping hormone treatment or undergoing procedures to reverse previous surgeries. Similar to transitioning, detransitioning requires intensive mental health assessments to root out other factors that might be creating the desire to stop transitioning, according to research. Common reasons for detransitioning include lack of family support, financial barriers and social pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When someone chooses to detransition, \u201cit is not normally because of healthcare complications,\u201d said Andrea Segovia, senior field and policy director for the Transgender Education Network of Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Segovia is concerned that access to mental healthcare will not be woven into the clinic\u2019s services. In March<\/a>, Paxton released an opinion saying that mental health providers licensed by the state cannot provide gender-transitioning care to minors under state law. It\u2019s not clear if Paxton believes state law bars detransitioning mental healthcare as well.<\/p>\n

For those who do want to detransition, the resources already exist, said Kellan Baker, senior advisor for the Movement Advancement Project, a national think tank that focuses on LGBTQ policies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Detransitioning services, although they are rarely needed, can and have been offered properly when accompanied with mental health resources. But Baker said he\u2019s not confident that this clinic, born out of a heated conflict between a hospital and the attorney general, has the best intentions for the transgender community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas Children\u2019s is not creating this clinic \u2014 the Texas attorney general is creating it,\u201d Baker said. \u201cA clinic created by a politician via legal intimidation is not in the best interests of any patient. Doctors should be the ones making decisions about how to provide medical care, not politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Resource that no one is asking for\u2019<\/p>\n

Brad Pritchett, CEO of Equality Texas, a nonprofit that advocates for the LGBTQ community, said in a statement that the attorney general is \u201cblackmailing a hospital system into creating a resource that no one is asking for.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pritchett said Texas\u2019 politically-motivated detransition clinic \u201cignores the actual science and years of data about the overwhelming benefits of gender-affirming care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several medical associations including the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and American Psychiatric Association, have supported evidence-based gender-transitioning care<\/a> as appropriate and medically necessary for children.<\/p>\n

Pritchett added that it is \u201cembarrassing that a hospital once revered for its care has lost its integrity and put politics over patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dallas state Rep. Jessica Gonz\u00e1lez<\/a> who chairs the Texas House LGBTQ Caucus said in a statement that the settlement is \u201cshameful, and is the furthering of an agenda to eradicate transgender people from the eyes of society.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Transgender people make up about 1% of the population<\/a>, which is why, Segovia said, it is \u201cinfuriating\u201d that the state is creating the detransition clinic as access to other healthcare services are struggling \u2014 such as rural hospitals and reproductive care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texas Children\u2019s has to fully fund the clinic for five years, which will take away attention and limited resources from the hospital\u2019s other departments such as care for children with cancer and infants with heart conditions, Gonz\u00e1lez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing a settlement to compel a hospital to build an ideologically framed clinic opens the door to more state interference in medical practice, more dangerous stigmatization that truly harms young Texans, and, sadly, more lives lost in our nation\u2019s suicide epidemic,\u201d said Gonz\u00e1lez, one of the few only queer representatives in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Houston state Sen. Molly Cook<\/a>, who is also openly queer, said Paxton is manufacturing a political spectacle because providers know how to help someone detransition and the state doesn\u2019t need a clinic to train them on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an asinine waste of money that is typical of Texas\u2019s out-of-touch statewide leadership,\u201d Cook said in a statement. \u201cTexas Children\u2019s already provides care for patients who choose to change a course of treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The need for such a clinic in Texas is made even smaller by the fact that the state\u2019s ban on gender-transitioning care for minors has resulted in very few Texas children likely needing to detransition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The five doctors that Paxton said Texas Children\u2019s will need to fire adds to the four doctors he\u2019s already sued to stop providing gender-affirming care. He\u2019s also sued Children\u2019s Health System of Texas, headquartered in Dallas, accusing them of violating SB 14. Some parts of Texas already suffer from a pediatric endocrinologist shortage<\/a> in the wake of SB 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Segovia with the Transgender Education Network of Texas said she\u2019s worried that other states will follow Texas\u2019 lead in forcing more of these clinics to open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrifying what other states will take from this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Equality Texas, Texas Children\u2019s Hospital, Texas Hospital Association and Texas Medical Association have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392,43847,8359],"class_list":["post-672424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-ken-paxton","tag-lgbtq"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}