Ken Paxton sues a lot of people.
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On Wednesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s battle against a pair of local doctors intensified with new accusations added to lawsuits against both defendants. A statement released by Paxton’s office describes the moves as “first-of-their-kind legal actions to hold two North Texas physicians accountable for illegally administering ‘gender transition’ drugs to minors and then fraudulently billing Texas Medicaid.”
“New evidence gathered by the Office of the Attorney General shows that there were deliberate efforts to conceal illegal activity by falsifying records, altering diagnosis codes, and submitting deceptive billing information, which is conduct that supports new healthcare fraud claims,” the statement reads. “By submitting deceptive billing records, Lau and Cooper were able to conceal the ‘gender transition’ interventions and secure Medicaid reimbursement for services that Texas law and Texas Medicaid explicitly do not allow.
The doctors in question, May Lau and M. Brett Cooper, were initially sued by Paxton in 2024. In October, Lau surrendered her medical license in Texas, although her attorneys stressed the move was not an admission of guilt. Lau relocated her practice to Oregon.
“Dr. Lau continues to deny the Texas Attorney General’s politically- and ideologically-driven allegations,” Lau’s attorney told the Texas Tribune in October.
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In the suits against Cooper, Paxton alleged the doctor was “providing cross-sex hormones to children for the purpose of transitioning their biological sex or affirming their belief that their gender identity or sex is inconsistent with their biological sex.” Lau and Cooper were both on staff at UT Southwestern Medical when the 2024 lawsuits were filed.
Prescribing gender-affirming medication, such as hormones, was outlawed in Texas when Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 14 into law following the 88th Texas Legislature in 2023. Gender-affirming care has been endorsed as safe by almost every major American medical organization.
In 2021, the American Medical Association wrote a letter to the National Governors Association advising against legislation that would prohibit “medically necessary gender transition-related care for minor patients,” stating that such laws would represent “a dangerous intrusion into the practice of medicine.”
In light of the billing impropriety allegations, Paxton now seeks “three times the amount of improperly paid Medicaid funds and substantial civil penalties for each unlawful act to hold the physicians accountable to Texas law and ensure that Texas is repaid for the evil performed by the doctors.”