Major US children's hospital opens historic detransition clinic after $10M legal showdown
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday that the nation’s first-ever detransition clinic has opened at Texas Children’s Hospital following a $10 million settlement with the state.
The clinic, which opened Tuesday, will provide detransition-related medical care to patients through age 21, along with detransition-related obstetric and gynecologic care to patients older than 21.
The facility is the result of a $10 million settlement reached between Texas Children’s Hospital and the state in May and finalized in August.
The settlement required the hospital to pay $10 million to resolve claims under the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act and the federal False Claims Act over allegations of improper billing for gender-transition treatments.
In accordance with my settlement with Texas Children’s Hospital, the nation’s first-ever Detransition Clinic is now open.
Paxton, who is also running for the U.S. Senate in Texas, stated that the clinic will provide care and support for victims of what he termed the "radical left’s gender ideology."
The Trump administration has been targeting initiatives related to transgender people in recent months, announcing in August that it would cease providing funding for gender transition surgeries using Medicaid for minors.
The new clinic is part of a broader effort by the administration to restrict gender-affirming care for minors.
Multidisciplinary care and funding
The detransition clinic will offer a multidisciplinary approach, with services provided by Endocrinology, Surgery, Primary Care, Fertility Counseling, Psychiatry, Psychology, Social Work/Case Management and Speech Pathology.
The hospital’s spokesperson emphasized that patients and families are at the center of all operations and that the clinic formalizes existing supportive services.
First and foremost, patients and families are at the center of all we do and we will always provide the highest standard of care, including through this clinic, which formalizes the supportive, multidisciplinary services we have and will continue to deliver.
The spokesperson added that all services will be within the hospital’s existing licensure and scope.
The hospital is actively triaging prospective patients through its established intake process, though it cannot share patient information due to privacy concerns.
TCH is required to fully fund services provided through the detransition clinic for its first five years, ensuring patients receive those services at no cost.
The hospital must also publicize the clinic on its website as part of the settlement.
Broader context and future steps
The opening of the clinic comes as President Donald Trump campaigned in Texas on Tuesday to boost Paxton’s Senate bid.
A Fox News poll published on Oct. 21 found that Democratic candidate James Talarico and Paxton were tied at 49% each among likely voters in the state.
Do No Harm, a medical advocacy organization critical of gender-transition treatments for minors, estimates that 13,994 minors received gender-transition-related medical interventions between 2019 and 2023.
The clinic’s operations will be closely monitored as it begins to serve patients seeking to reverse gender-affirming treatments.
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