HOUSTON, TX – In a historic legal settlement last week, Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) committed to stop administering mutilating gender interventions on children and agreed to create and fund the first “detransition clinic” to help victims of harmful gender ideology.

TCH, the largest children’s hospital in the nation, entered into agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which include ceasing all sex-rejecting procedures on gender-confused children, such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and irreversible genital surgeries. The settlement also requires TCH to fire, “irrevocably terminate,” and “never again hire or credential” five doctors who performed these harmful procedures on children. TCH also agreed to a host of other compliance and ethics measures, including amending its bylaws to “trigger automatic” denial of medical practice privileges to any physician who violates Texas’ ban on gender interventions for children.

According to the settlement, TCH will also pay $10 million in damages and civil penalties for using fraudulent billing practices that involved falsely coding gender interventions as different procedures to receive Texas Medicaid reimbursements. This fraudulent practice had been exposed by whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim in 2023. 

In addition, the settlement requires TCH to “establish the first-ever multidisciplinary clinic designed to provide medical care to patients who were subjected to ‘gender-transition’ procedures,” stated a press release from AG Paxton’s office. 

“This Detransition Clinic will help patients reverse the damage caused by ideologically-motivated physicians who harmed patients by performing dangerous medical interventions for the purpose of ‘transitioning’ them,” reads the press release. “For the first five years, all services provided through the Detransition Clinic will be funded by Texas Children’s and be free of charge to patients.”  

The settlement follows a recent string of medical malpractice lawsuits against doctors won by permanently marred young people who regret their ordeal. At least an additional 28 lawsuits from “detransitioners” are in progress across the U.S. 

In 2021, a study from the Society of Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, which surveyed 237 “detransitioners,” revealed that 65 percent needed help “finding medical alternatives” rather than continuing “transition.” Sixty percent reported coping with regret while 51 percent reported they did not feel supported in their “detransition.”

In a statement, TCH expressed no regrets over the children it has harmed, and noted their decision to cooperate with state and federal authorities was about “protecting” financial resources from “costly litigation.”

“To be clear – we are settling to protect our resources from endless and costly litigation. This settlement will allow us to redirect those precious resources to focus on the life-saving care and groundbreaking discoveries of our exceptional clinicians and scientists,” reads the TCH statement. 

“This historic settlement reflects an institutional and fundamental cultural shift away from radical ‘gender’ ideology,” said AG Paxton. “In addition to helping establish the first-ever Detransition Clinic and securing millions, this settlement will ensure that the deranged child mutilators who hurt our kids are fired and held accountable.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche noted that “the Justice Department will use every weapon at its disposal to end the destructive and discredited practice of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ for children.”

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Harmful gender ideology has devastated many lives. The medical community has an irremovable stain on it for irreversibly mutilating gender-confused children. This settlement between Texas Children’s Hospital, the Texas Attorney General, and the Justice Department is a step in the right direction to curtail this radical ideology and help restore the medical profession to one that heals rather than harms.” 

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