Texas Sues Doctor Accused of Providing Gender-Affirming Care to Transgender Children

Ryan J. Farrick — October 18, 2024

A 2013 image of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Image via Wikimedia Commons/user:Alice Linahan Voices Empower. (CCA-BY-2.0).

“Lau is a scofflaw who is putting the health and safety of minors at risk by prescribing testosterone, a controlled substance, to biological female minors for the purposes of transitioning their biological sex or affirming their belief that their gender identity is inconsistent with their biological sex in violation of Tex. Health & Safety Code,” the lawsuit alleges.

Texas has filed a lawsuit against a Dallas doctor accused of violating recently-passed restrictions on the provision of gender-affirming care to children.

According to The Associated Press, the lawsuit was announced earlier this week by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. In the complaint, Paxton’s office claims that Dr. May Lua, a physician in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, prescribed hormones to 20 or more children in violation of prohibitions that went into effect last year.

“Today, enforcement begins against those who have violated the law,” Paxton’s office said shortly after filing the lawsuit.

“Texas passed a law to protect children from these dangerous, unscientific medical interventions have irreversible and damaging effects,” Paxton said in a statement. “Doctors who continue to provide these harmful ‘gender transition’ drugs and treatments will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Texas’s statute against gender-affirming care, writes The Associated Press, broadly prohibits children under the age of 18 from receiving treatments including hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and reassignment surgeries.

LGBTQ flag. Image via Quote Catalog, Flickr, CC BY 2.0, no changes.

“Lau is a scofflaw who is putting the health and safety of minors at risk by prescribing testosterone, a controlled substance, to biological female minors for the purposes of transitioning their biological sex or affirming their belief that their gender identity is inconsistent with their biological sex in violation of Tex. Health & Safety Code,” the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint claims that Lau falsified “medical records, prescriptions, and billing records to represent that her testosterone prescriptions are for something other than transitioning a child’s biological sex or affirming a child’s belief that their gender identity is inconsistent with their biological sex.”

Harper Seldin, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said that doctors like Lau should not have to fear being targeted for prescribing treatments that are considered standard by many providers.

“Doctors should not have to fear being targeted by the government when using their best medical judgment,” Seldin told CNN, “and politicians like Ken Paxton should not be putting themselves between families and their doctors.”

Seldin, speaking to CNN, said that Paxton’s lawsuit is the “predictable and terrifying result” of Texas’s statutes.

Paxton’s office is seeking penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and is asking a court to issue an injunction against Lau, which would order her to cease providing gender-affirming care in violation of state law.

The law, formerly known as Texas S.B. 14, also instructs the state Medical Board to revoke the medical licenses of doctors who violate restrictions on the prescription of gender-affirming care.