Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a Dallas-based UT Southwestern Medical Center physician over violating state law by providing hormone replacement therapy to 21 minors. This is the first time an attorney general has sued an individual physician over transition-related care for minors, NBC News reported Oct. 17.
May Chi Lau, MD, a physician who specializes in adolescent medicine, is accused of using "false diagnoses and billing codes" to hide the "unlawful prescriptions" between October 2023 and August 2024. If Dr. Lau is found to be in violation of the law, she could lose her medical license and face financial penalties of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"Texas passed a law to protect children from these dangerous unscientific medical interventions that have irreversible and damaging effects," Mr. Paxton said in a statement Thursday. "Physicians who continue to provide these harmful 'gender transition' drugs and treatments will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
The American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics, among other large medical organizations, disagree with Mr. Paxton's assertions that transition-related care is "experimental" or "unscientific." They have stated that transition-related care is an effective and medically necessary way to treat gender dysphoria.
Last year, Texas law banned hormone replacement therapy and other forms of gender-affirming care for minors. It allowed physicians to continue prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy to patients who had begun treatment before June 1, 2023, but with the purpose of weaning them off the medication in a safe and medically appropriate manner. Minors are required to attend at least 12 mental health counseling or psychotherapy sessions for at least six months before they start treatment. It is unclear if Dr. Lau's patients fall within that requirement.
Texas is one of 26 states that have banned some forms of gender-affirming care for minors. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments and rule on a similar law in Tennessee. The ruling on that law will affect similar laws in other states.
Becker's has reached out to UT Southwestern Medical Center and will update this article if more information becomes available.