Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday announced a “historic settlement” with Texas Children’s Hospital that “compels the creation of the country’s first-ever Detransition Clinic.”

According to a press release from Paxton’s office, the settlement also “requires the hospital to pay $10 million for billing Texas Medicaid for unallowable and illegal ‘gender-transition’ interventions.”

“Today is a monumental day in the fight to stop the radical transgender movement. This historic settlement reflects an institutional and fundamental cultural shift away from radical ‘gender’ ideology. 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,” said Paxton.

“I applaud Texas Children’s 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. Under my watch, I will investigate and bring the full force of the law against any Texas hospital that abuses children with harmful medical interventions to ‘transition’ kids,” he continued.

More from Paxton’s office:

After a years-long investigation by the Healthcare Program Enforcement Division, Attorney General Paxton has negotiated a historic settlement that will help protect Texans. Under the terms of this landmark agreement, Texas Children’s will establish the first-ever multidisciplinary clinic designed to provide medical care to patients who were subjected to “gender-transition” procedures. 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. 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.

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As part of the settlement, Texas Children’s has also agreed to fire, permanently and irrevocably terminate all existing privileges, and never again hire or credential five woke doctors who performed harmful medical interventions on Texans. As part of the settlement, Texas Children’s agrees not to provide “gender-transition” services; will implement a host of compliance and ethics measures; and the hospital will amend its bylaws to trigger automatic relinquishment of privileges for any physician who violates Texas’s prohibition on medical interventions to “transition” kids. Attorney General Paxton secured this historic settlement in coordination with President Trump’s Department of Justice.

“What an incredible moment for the movement to end child mutilation. Texas will be home to the first clinic that helps victims of these barbaric procedures to get back to normalcy,” said Chloe Cole, a 21-year-old detransitioner and advocate.

The Texas Tribune shared further:

Texas Children’s said in a statement that it made the “difficult decision” to settle with the attorney general’s office to close a legal chapter that has been, “wrought with falsehoods and distractions.”

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.

“All reviews and investigations continue to support the facts – we have been compliant with all laws,” the hospital statement said. “To be clear – we are settling to protect our resources from endless and costly litigation … We stand proud knowing we will always put our purpose over politics and that we have and will continue to follow the law.”

Texas Children’s, one of the world’s leading pediatric hospitals, did not say in its statement how it will roll out its clinic or what services it will include.

Andrea Segovia with the Transgender Education Network of Texas said she’s worried that other states will follow Texas’ lead in forcing more of these clinics to open.

“It’s terrifying what other states will take from this,” Segovia said, the organization’s senior field and policy director.

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Transgender people make up about 1% of the population, Segovia said, and it is “infuriating” that the state is creating the detransition clinic as access to other healthcare services are struggling — such as rural hospitals and reproductive care.

She is also concerned that access to mental healthcare will not be woven into the clinic’s services.

“When trans people decide to detransition, it is because of social pressures from their job, from their friends, from their family, from their government,” Segovia said. “It is not normally because of healthcare complications.”

In March, Paxton released an opinion saying that mental health providers licensed by the state cannot provide gender-transitioning care to minors under state law. It’s not clear if Paxton believes state law bars detransitioning mental healthcare as well.

 

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