Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation Friday into Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, located in Austin, to determine whether it is «illegally» providing certain gender-affirming health care to minors.
“It is now alarmingly common for fringe activists to use their positions in medicine and health care to force life-altering experimental procedures on children,” Paxton said in a statement.
“Across the country, there are doctors and health professionals who seem willing to sacrifice the long-term health of America’s children, all in the service of the increasingly dangerous trend of ‘transgender’ extremism,” he added. «It’s deeply disturbing and there’s no place for it in Texas.»
Paxton said there have been «a number of recent reports of potentially illegal activity» at the center and that «this investigation is aimed at uncovering the truth.» While he did not provide any details about the reports, the announcement follow a video published last month by Project Veritas, a far-right activist group, in which someone purported to be a Dell Children’s employee said that patients begin the transition at ages 8 and 9. A center spokesman directed NBC News to a statement issued last week that said the center «takes seriously any allegations about the care provided at our clinics.»
«Our organization prohibits surgery and the prescription of hormone therapy for the treatment of gender dysphoria in children,» the statement said. “While our pediatric and adolescent medicine clinics do not provide these interventions, we do provide a safe and nurturing place for children to receive other forms of primary care and treatment, including treatment of illness and injury, well-baby visits, and exams. school physicists.
The center added that it is «undertaking a thorough review of this situation.»
«To the extent that the care provided at our clinic may have been inconsistent with our organization’s position on this important issue, we intended to take appropriate action,» the statement said.
The Paxton investigation is the latest attempt in a yearlong effort by Republican state officials to restrict transition-related child care.
It did not say what law the hospital would be breaking by providing such care. However, in February 2022, it issued a legal opinion that classified gender-affirming care for minors as child abuse and directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which investigates allegations of child abuse, to «act in consequence».
The next day, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive calling on «licensed professionals» and «members of the general public» to report parents of transgender minors to state authorities if it appears the minors are receiving care. gender affirming medical
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services opened nine investigations following the directive and opinion, but two judges have suspended some of them and blocked further investigations into families who are members of PFLAG, an advocacy group that has filed a lawsuit against the state. .
Paxton’s announcement also comes after a week of tense protests at the state Capitol in Austin over two bills that would prohibit transition-related care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, for minors. The bills would also prohibit public funds from covering treatments or going to hospitals or health professionals who provide the treatments.
On Tuesday, hundreds of people turned out on Capitol Hill, both in support and opposition to one of the bills. Photos and videos from that day on, protesters chant loudly in the Capitol rotunda and multiple incidents between protesters and police. Capitol police eventually vacated the building, a move several activists say hasn’t happened in the past decade of attending protests and gatherings there.
Sofia Sepúlveda, community engagement and advocacy manager for LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Texas, said she was banned from the Capitol for a year after unfurling a banner in the rotunda as part of a demonstration, something she said she had done many times. times before.
Sepúlveda said that after arriving at the Capitol on Tuesday, he passed the banner through security as he had done before, and told security about his intentions to drop the banner. She said the officers told her not to drop the banner on the House’s verandah and not to attach it to the railing where she planned to leave it.
When the demonstration began, she and four other people dropped the banner that read: «Let trans children grow up.» After about two minutes, she said, the officers approached her group and asked them to raise the banner, which they did. Then, she said, the officers began questioning her and eventually told her that they were going to give her a warning, but that she would be banned from the Capitol for a year. When she asked why, she Sepúlveda said one of the officers told her: «Those are the rules.» She pointed out that she was the only trans Latina person holding the banner and that the other four trans people were all white.
The Texas Department of Public Safety did not immediately return a request for comment on Sepulveda’s allegations.
She said she plans to return within a year, even if it means she will be arrested.
“They are trying to erase us,” he said. “I refuse to be shut down, I refuse to be erased, and I refuse to be controlled by a state government.”
Democrats on Tuesday delayed debate on the transitional care ban by using a procedural tactic known as “point of order.” The bill was debated again on Friday, but Democrats delayed it a second time by repeatedly raising points of order.