Texas Children’s Hospital, the largest pediatric hospital in the United States, announced that it would no longer provide gender-affirming care to patients in response to an executive order from Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
That order, which relied on a non-binding legal opinion from state Attorney General Ken Paxton, stated that such care equated to child abuse — a notion that contradicts scientific consensus on the subject, and which experts and medical associations have vehemently disagreed with. Abbott’s decree also demands that the state investigate families who seek out gender-affirming care for their children, and similarly requires investigations into doctors, nurses and other medical staff that assist in such treatment.
In announcing its decision, Texas Children’s Hospital cited Abbott’s order, which warned of “criminal penalties” for those who ignored it.
“After assessing the Attorney General’s and Governor’s actions, Texas Children’s Hospital paused hormone-related prescription therapies for gender-affirming services,” a statement from the hospital said. “This step was taken to safeguard our healthcare professionals and impacted families from potential criminal legal ramifications.”
Texas Children’s Hospital’s decision to halt care for transgender and gender diverse children was widely condemned. The hospital could have taken a firm and decisive stand against Abbott’s order, some have pointed out, as legal challenges to the order have already successfully halted investigations into at least one family in the state (later this week, a judge is set to rule on whether the order violates families’ rights overall).
“Think about the implications of the biggest pediatric hospital in Texas suddenly halting lifesaving hormone therapy for trans youth,” Ari Drennen, LGBTQ program director for Media Matters for America, said on Twitter. “This will force kids who’ve been thriving as themselves either traumatically detransition or turn to less safe internet sources for treatment.”
Travis Reece-Nguyen, a board-certified general and pediatric anesthesiologist and a member of the World/US Professional Association for Transgender Health, also rebuked the action by Texas Children’s Hospital.
“Hey @TexasChildrens, do you know how harmful it is to totally stop ALL gender-affirming care for #trans and #genderdiverse [patients]? You should be leading the efforts opposing this TX HATE [executive order] instead of bowing down and harming your own [patients],” Reece-Nguyen wrote. “DO BETTER.”
Meanwhile, the Campaign for Southern Equality noted that the hospital’s decision and similar moves from other entities in Texas “are the consequences of the cruelty from the Texas Attorney General, Governor, and anti-transgender forces in the state.”
Transgender lawyer and activist Chase Strangio expressed similar sentiments, stating that “there is so much bad stuff happening to trans people in Texas so fast it is hard to catch our breaths.”
“I am sending so much love to everyone on the ground [sic] their fighting for justice and fighting to live,” Strangio added.
Studies show that gender-affirming care is beneficial to those who receive it, including children; in many cases, such treatment can even be life-saving.
Transgender and gender diverse children “who have access to gender-affirming medical care experience improvements in mental health and often show mental health comparable to their cisgender peers,” one analysis of multiple studies examining the topic concluded.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy