The largest children’s hospital in the United States has announced it will end transgender procedures and drug treatments for minors over the next few weeks in light of a new state law that bans such procedures.
Mark Wallace, CEO of Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, said in a memo to staff this week that the change was prompted by the state Legislature’s passage of Senate Bill 14, according to Texas Public Media.
The new law, which is scheduled to take effect Sept. 1, bans “procedures and treatments for gender transitioning, gender reassignment, or gender dysphoria and on the use of public money or public assistance to provide those procedures and treatments.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will sign the legislation, according to KDFW-TV.
“A person under 18, they don’t have the mental capacity to make a life-changing decision,” the Republican governor said.
In his memo, Wallace said, “We will work with patients and their families to manage the discontinuation of hormone therapies or source appropriate care outside of Texas. We will continue to offer psychosocial support and any form of care we can within the bounds of the law.”
SCOOP: Texas Children’s Hospital CEO Mark Wallace announces plans to discontinue the hospital’s child sex-change program, in accordance with new legislation. He calls the decision “heart-wrenching,” defends child sex changes as “high-quality,” and will refer kids out of state. pic.twitter.com/ab3FaLDNW5
— Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) May 24, 2023
With 973 beds, the hospital is the largest for children in the nation, according to Hospital Management.
In response to the memo, Republican state Sen. Donna Campbell, who helped author the legislation, said in a statement to Fox News, “Children need counseling and love, not blades and drugs.”
“Both as a doctor and Senator I carefully crafted SB 14, with Dr. and Rep. Tom Oliverson, to protect children from social experimentation and exploitation,” she said.
“SB 14 Prevents the use of puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and mutilating surgeries. Gender dysphoria is a soft description for mental delusion,” Campbell said.
Texas Children’s Hospital also is facing an investigation from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Last year, the hospital said it would end the provision of certain kinds of transgender procedures, but a May 16 report by City Journal said those treatments had resumed.
“I’ve been clear that any ‘gender transitioning’ procedures that hurt our children constitute child abuse under Texas law,” Paxton said in a statement on May 19.
“Recent reports indicate that Texas Children’s Hospital may be unlawfully performing such procedures, and my office it is working to uncover the truth,” he said. “I am committed to investigating any entity in our state to ensure that our children are protected.”
“Though many unhinged activists compromising the healthcare field think otherwise, children are not to be treated as science experiments. Doctors and hospitals should not be pushing mutilative and irreversible ‘gender transitioning’ procedures that will negatively impact innocent children for the rest of their lives,” Paxton said.
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