{"id":2033,"date":"2025-10-14T05:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T05:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/2033\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T05:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T05:34:10","slug":"ken-paxton-warns-houston-methodist-in-letter-over-vaccine-policies-for-organ-transplants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/2033\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Paxton warns Houston Methodist in letter over vaccine policies for organ transplants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday warned Houston Methodist<\/a> that it shouldn’t deny organ transplants to patients who haven’t received the COVID-19 vaccine<\/a>, but the hospital said it is already complying with a new Texas law that prohibits such policies.<\/p>\n

The law, known as House Bill 4076, went into effect on Sept. 1. It prohibits health care providers from denying an organ transplant and related services to a patient based solely on their vaccination status.<\/p>\n

Paxton issued a letter<\/a> on Monday that said his office had become aware of allegations that Houston Methodist was denying organ transplants to patients who hadn’t received the COVID-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n

He gave the hospital an Oct. 27 deadline to provide a written explanation of steps the hospital is taking to ensure its policies are in line with the law, and said he would open a formal investigation if the hospital fails to respond.<\/p>\n

“Texans looking to receive medical care should never be turned away due to arbitrary COVID-19 vaccine mandates imposed by woke medical providers,” Paxton said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The new Houston Methodist Cypress Hospital is photographed in Cypress, Friday, March 7, 2025. (Yi-Chin Lee\/Houston Chronicle)<\/p>\n

Houston Methodist said in a statement that the hospital is following the new law. Since the law took effect, the hospital has not denied any organ transplants to patients because they are unvaccinated, a Houston Methodist spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“Houston Methodist does not have a policy requiring transplant patients be vaccinated against COVID-19, or any other disease, and does not deny care based on vaccination status,” the hospital said in the statement.<\/p>\n

Houston Methodist has previously been at the center of controversies involving the COVID-19 vaccine. The hospital in 2021 became the first in the nation to require a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment, though it allowed employees to request a medical or religious exemption.<\/p>\n

More than 150 employees were fired or resigned after the requirement took effect, and 117 employees subsequently filed a wrongful termination lawsuit<\/a> against the hospital. A federal judge tossed the suit<\/a>, and an appeals court upheld the dismissal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally published at Ken Paxton warns Houston Methodist in letter over vaccine policies for organ transplants<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday warned Houston Methodist that it shouldn’t deny organ transplants to patients who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,2597,57,1967,2598,2601,2600,2599],"class_list":["post-2033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-methodist","tag-houston-news","tag-ken-paxton","tag-organ-transplants","tag-transplant-patients","tag-vaccination-status","tag-vaccine-mandates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}