Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) is creating the nation’s first detransition clinic, a stunning development that resulted from a settlement following a lawsuit. The moves come as TCH has entered into agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to stop puberty blockers and surgeries on children.
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“Texas Children’s Hospital violated state law when the state legislature passed a law in Texas saying that there were no more puberty blockers, opposite sex hormones, or mutilating surgeries permitted on minors,” Mat Staver, chairperson of the Liberty Counsel, a conservative legal firm, told CBN News. “Texas Children’s Hospital violated that law, and they then changed the medical codes so that the people who were looking at this for reimbursement for state funds would not understand that they’re actually violating the law, so they … issued the billing codes to something other than what they were doing.”
Staver mentioned Dr. Eithan Haim, a Texas physician who became a whistleblower after speaking out about what was unfolding at Texas Children’s Hospital. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed Senate Bill 14 in 2023, an effort to prevent children from being given hormone therapy and puberty blockers.
“[Haim] was threatened by the Texas Children’s Hospital with the revocation of his license and the ruining of his career because Texas Children’s Hospital wanted to continue to mutilate children even though it was in violation of the law,” Staver said. “And they wanted these whistleblowers silenced. That came to the attention of the state and Attorney General Ken Paxton, and he came after Texas Children’s Hospital; that led up to this historic settlement.”
Staver explained that Paxton went after TCH, taking legal action against them. This led to the aforementioned “historic settlement,” which requires TCH to stop providing puberty blockers, hormones, and other efforts to transition genders.
Additionally, TCH needs to establish a detransition clinic to help people harmed by the medical industry, and five doctors were also terminated.
“They have to create the nation’s first so-called detransition multidisciplinary clinic and operate that for at least five years free of charge at their own expense so people can come there who were harmed and get free medical treatment to try to undo some of the harm that Texas Children’s Hospital inflicted as well as others that are pushing this ideology,” Staver said. “But there’s more to the settlement in addition to that; they have to pay $10 million dollars for their fraudulent codes.”
Paxton’s office released a statement last month hailing the moment as an important move toward providing justice for kids and young people who have been harmed by doctors.
“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,” it read. “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.”
Staver said he believes the lawsuit’s outcome should send a powerful message that reverberates across the nation. He’s hoping that the terms will incentivize hospitals and other institutions to “stop harming kids.”
Staver said it’s been “heartbreaking” to see the impact he’s observed on young people who regret seeing transitions.
“The heartbreaking thing is that you have … 28 lawsuits against medical providers and hospitals, doctors and counselors for giving them this bad advice and then harming their bodies,” he said. “And that number will continue to increase exponentially as we move forward.”
Staver continued, “But the sad thing is that you have a child that’s brought in by their parents and they have real issues. It may be they’re on the autism spectrum, they may have depression, anxiety, body image issues, anorexia, bulimia, whatever it might be. They’re dealing with serious, real mental illness — issues that need to be addressed.”
But, rather than treatment, Staver said these individuals are given “false information” that fails to treat their underlying conditions, with some doctors instead offering puberty blockers, sex hormones — or even surgery. These individuals are sold the lie that they were “born in the wrong body.”
“Desperately, these parents and children rely upon that false information,” he said. “They go down this road like Chloe Cole. In Chloe’s case, before she was even an adult, she had a double mastectomy, and, then, when she became adult, she realized … the underlying issues … were never resolved; they got worse.”
Staver believes the detransition clinic will offer people an opportunity to seek treatment if and when they come to the same place in their own journeys.
As for TCH, the institution previously released a statement noting it had complied with the law and decided to settle after “falsehoods” plagued the case. It also claimed to have already provided services that it is now required to create, according to Houston Public Media.
“The detransition clinic will formalize the supportive, multidisciplinary services we already deliver to all patients who need our care,” the statement read. “This simply provides structure and a name for the services we currently provide.”
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