Dallas (AP) – One of the countries The first doctor criticized The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said nearly a year after the state sued doctors, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton found that they were illegally providing care to transgender youth under a GOP-led ban.
Dr. Hector Granados, a pediatric endocrinologist in El Paso, was called “scofflaw” by Paxton’s office last year in a lawsuit accusing her of forged and violating medical records. Texas Prohibition It came into effect in 2023. More than 20 states have banned gender-preserving care for transgender youth, but Texas was the first to file a lawsuit against doctors and a lawsuit against Granados. and two other providers.
The lawsuits against other doctors in Dallas remain ongoing. However, Paxton’s office quietly retracted the lawsuit against Granados last week, saying “no legal violations were found” following a “review of evidence and a full medical record of Granados.”
Granados, who says Paxton’s office didn’t reach out before suing him last October, said he hoped he would first show the youth that he had stopped maintaining gender before the law came into effect.
“It was just out and then I had to do everything,” Granados said in an interview.
US Supreme Court It was ruled in June The state can ban gender-preserving healthcare for transgender minors, and at least 27 states have adopted laws that restrict or prohibit care. Those accused of violating the ban face criminal charges in some states, but not in Texas. In Texas, providers will instead be exposed to sudden fines and revocations of medical licenses.
In a statement, Paxton’s office said Dr. May Lau and the other defendants’ physician Dr. M. Brett Cooper “we face justice for hurting Texas children both physically and mentally.” Their lawyers did not provide comment Wednesday.
“Attorney General Paxton will continue to bring the full power of the law to the paranoid, left-wing health professionals who have committed the crime of forcing our children to “gender” madness,” Paxton’s office said.
Paxton, a close ally of the president Donald Trumpand is seeking to establish a position as a national leader within the ascendant hard rights of the GOP, He runs for the US Senate.
Trump has in his second term A wide range of charging has been started Moves against transgender rights Reverse year of legal and policy interests For transgender Americans. Even in states where care is permitted under state law, Major Hospitals and Hospital Systems They said so Stop or limit care.
Harper Seldin, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said that even if the lawsuit is dropped, those who have to protect themselves need a “great sacrifice.”
“I think this continues to be best understood as part of the Texas AG campaign that threatens healthcare providers,” he said.
Granados said he was paying close attention to halting gender-affirming care for young people before the Texas ban came into effect. He said that treating transgender youth before the ban was merely an extension of his practice of treating young people in diabetes, growth issues and early adolescence.
He continued to prescribe adolescent blockers and hormone replacement therapy after the ban, but said those treatments were not gender transitions. Granados said it is for young people with endocrine disorders that occur when hormone levels are too high or too low.
The Texas lawsuit against Granados called him “scofflaw, which is jeopardizing the health and safety of Texas children.” It referenced a 2015 news article on transgender care, which he wrote about Granados and medical articles on the topic. Also mentioned in the lawsuit were details about unknown patients, including age and testosterone, which they were prescribed.
In court documents filed in Cooper’s case, lawyers for Paxton’s office said they had summoned a provider report for doctors’ testosterone prescriptions from the Texas Prescription Surveillance Program.
Granados’ attorney Mark Bracken said after signing an agreed protection order with the state, he was able to create a patient record confidentially to show that Granados was in compliance with the law.
Peter Salib, an assistant professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center, said it was “unusual” for the state to stop litigation due to a lack of violations after filing the lawsuit.
“They have a lot of opportunities to know what’s going on before they decide to file a lawsuit,” he said.
Granados said he was grateful that he would not file a lawsuit deep inside him.
“It always hits you and your feelings,” he said.
