Seattle Children’s Hospital agreed to stop doing business in Texas in response to a subpoena from Attorney General Ken Paxton demanding its records of transgender procedures on minors in the state.
The hospital will not have to provide the records as part of the deal to drop the subpoena, which required the hospital to withdraw its business registration in Texas, as first reported by The New York Post.
“Seattle Children’s Hospital appeared to break Texas law and initially tried to evade accountability when investigated,” Paxton said.
“When we merely began asking questions, they decided to leave the State of Texas and forfeit the opportunity to do business here. Let this make our position clear: medical providers in Texas must abide by our laws. In Texas, we vigorously protect children from damaging, experimental ‘gender transition’ treatments that can have life-altering negative consequences.”
The OAG opened an investigation into the hospital in November 2023 over claims it was illegally providing hormone inhibitors and transgender hormone usage to Texas children. The Texas legislature banned these transgender procedures on minors the following month with the passing of Senate Bill 14. Yet, its rollout was stalled due to legal challenges that brought it before the Texas Supreme Court, as covered by The Dallas Express.
Seattle Children’s sued Paxton last December as a response to the subpoena from his office, stating “the Demands represent an unconstitutional attempt to investigate potential interstate commerce and travel for Texas residents to another state,” per the Post. The hospital released a statement that said it “successfully fought” the “overreaching demands to obtain confidential patient information” of Paxton through the eventual agreement, per the Associated Press.
A whistleblower at Texas Children’s Hospital revealed last year that the hospital continued to provide transgender procedures for minors after promising Paxton it would no longer do so. This whistleblower, Eithan Haim, went public with his story in January to reveal the Biden administration investigated him due to his leaks, which withheld patient information, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
