DALLAS (AP) — Texas has indicted a Dallas doctor on allegations he provided gender-affirming care to young people. This is one of the first times a state has tried to enforce recent bans imposed by Republicans.
The lawsuit announced Thursday by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleges that Dr. May Lau, a doctor in the Dallas area, provided hormones to more than 20 minors in violation of a Texas ban that took effect last year.
It’s the first time Texas has tried to enforce the law, said Harper Seldin, a staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. He also said he was not aware of other states that have tried to enforce similar bans.
“Today, enforcement begins against those who broke the law,” Paxton’s office said in the lawsuit, which was filed in suburban Collin County.
Texas law prohibits transgender people under the age of 18 from accessing hormone therapies, puberty blockers and menopause surgeries, although surgical procedures are rarely performed on children.
Seldin said that while he could not comment on the facts of the case, he said the lawsuit is the “predictable and terrifying result” of the law, which his organization tried to prevent by challenging it.
“Physicians shouldn’t have to worry about being targeted by the government when they use their best medical judgment, and politicians like Ken Paxton shouldn’t have to put themselves between families and their doctors,” Seldin said.
Lau is an associate professor in the department of pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, according to the UT Southwestern website. According to the lawsuit, she has hospital privileges at two children’s hospitals in the region.
The lawsuit accuses her of “falsifying medical records, prescriptions and billing information to indicate that her testosterone prescriptions are for anything other than changing a child’s biological sex or confirming a child’s belief that his gender identity is inconsistent with his biological sex.”
Paxton is asking the court for an injunction against Lau and for a fine of up to $10,000 per violation.
Neither Lau nor UT Southwestern immediately responded to requests for comment Thursday. Children’s Health said in a statement that it “follows and complies with all state health care laws.”
At least 26 states have passed laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of those states are facing lawsuits. Federal judges have struck down the bans in Arkansas and Florida as unconstitutional, although a federal appeals court stayed the Florida ruling. A judge’s orders have been issued to temporarily block enforcement of the ban in Montana. New Hampshire’s restrictions are scheduled to take effect in January.
The lawsuit comes just weeks before an election in which Republicans have used support for gender-affirming health care as a way to attack their opponents. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has repeatedly criticized his Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, for his support for transgender rights.
The Texas ban was signed into law by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who was the first governor to order an investigation into families of transgender minors receiving gender-affirming care.
