HOUSTON — Texas Children's Hospital agreed to create a detransition clinic and cease providing gender-affirming care for minors as part of a $10 million settlement with the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The hospital will also permanently revoke the medical privileges of three current doctors and two former doctors.
Under the settlement terms, the hospital must establish a detransition clinic within 90 days of the agreement’s effective date, though a final document has not yet been signed. The clinic will offer endocrinology, surgery, primary care, fertility counseling, psychiatry, and psychotherapy. Texas Children's Hospital must also create a dedicated website for the clinic, including a donation page, and remove all press releases related to gender transition services from its site.
The settlement prohibits the hospital from performing gender-affirming procedures defined by the Texas Attorney General’s Office as “sex-rejecting” procedures involving pharmaceutical or surgical interventions that attempt to align an individual’s physical appearance or body with a gender differing from their sex assigned at birth. These procedures include puberty blockers and hormone treatments. Texas Children's Hospital must maintain a “Potential GAC Patient List” using diagnostic codes specified by the attorney general and conduct internal reviews to ensure compliance with state and federal laws.
Texas Children's Hospital stated it has not been asked to share the patient list and that doing so would not be legally permissible. “We abide by HIPAA and protecting patient privacy is one of our top priorities,” the hospital said. It added that the required services were already offered and that the detransition clinic “will formalize the supportive, multidisciplinary services we already deliver to all patients who need our care.”
“This simply provides structure and a name for the services we currently provide,” the hospital said. It previously described the legal matter as “wrought with falsehoods and distractions” and said it settled to close the case. The hospital also confirmed it has “aligned on a term sheet and the next step is to finalize the settlement agreement per standard practice.”