Texas launches probe into children's medical center for potentially 'illegal' trans procedures

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is launching a probe into the Dell Children's Medical Center, a non-profit hospital located in Austin, after a video surfaced showing staff at the facility allegedly saying that they are treating children who are transitioning genders as young as 8 years old. 

Paxton issued a Request to Examine to the medical center on Friday to ensure the nonprofit complies with Texas law, which deems most gender transition treatments for minors as child abuse.

"It is now alarmingly common for fringe activists to use their positions in medicine and health care to force experimental, life-altering procedures onto children," Paxton said. "Across the country, there are doctors and health care professionals who appear willing to sacrifice the long-term health of American children, all in service to the increasingly dangerous fad of ‘transgender’ extremism. It is deeply disturbing, and there is no place for it in Texas. Along these lines, there have been a number of recent reports about potentially illegal activity at Dell Children’s Medical Center, and this investigation aims to uncover the truth."

Paxton is asking the center to provide documents by May 30 about the ages of patients receiving "Gender Transitioning and Gender Reassignment" procedures, treatments and counseling, as well as the number of times a patient is seen before receiving treatment, the length of counseling sessions, any complaints the center may have received and other related materials.

The request comes after guerilla journalist group Project Veritas published a video last month showing a social worker at the medical center allegedly saying: "We do have patients starting as young as 8, 9 [years old]. So we do have folks on the younger side." The worker also apparently said it may be appropriate for a provider to prescribe puberty blockers "after one" session.

"It's not something that we want to gatekeep and require someone to, you know, come see us ten times before it's prescribed," the social worker also said. If a child wants to go through a formal sex change surgery, they will need to see a gender-affirming therapist, but otherwise, the center does not require it, the employee also said, per the video.

Responding to the investigation, Dell Children's said it "prohibits surgery and prescribing hormone therapy, including puberty blockers, for the treatment of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents."

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Chip Roy also demanded the hospital to provide answers about its procedures after the video surfaced.

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.