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A Dallas pediatrician has surrendered her medical license, a year after becoming the first target of a law that banned providing gender-transitioning hormones to minors.
Last October, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against adolescent medicine physician May Lau for prescribing testosterone to at least 21 patients. Her license was cancelled by her request early this month, according to the Texas Medical Board.
In a statement to The Texas Tribune, Lau maintained her innocence.
“Dr. Lau decided to move her medical practice to Oregon and saw no reason to continue to maintain her Texas license,” according to a statement provided by her attorney Craig Smyser. “Dr. Lau continues to deny the Texas Attorney General’s politically- and ideologically-driven allegations.”
The case was the first brought under Senate Bill 14, a 2023 law that prohibits physicians and health care providers from prescribing hormones to minors to transition their biological sex. The suit accused Lau of violating the law by authorizing the use of testosterone by at least 21 patients between the ages of 14 and 17 to transition their biological gender or affirm their gender identity.
Lau surrendering her license was “a major victory for our state,” Paxton said in a Friday news release.
“Doctors who permanently hurt kids by giving them experimental drugs are nothing more than disturbed left-wing activists who have no business being in the medical field,” Paxton said in the statement. “We will not relent in holding anyone who tries to ‘transition’ kids accountable.”
Calling her a “scofflaw” and a “radical gender activist,” Paxton last year also accused Lau of “falsifying medical records, prescriptions, and billing records” by inserting a puberty blocker device into a 15-year-old and billing the patient’s insurance for an endocrine disorder instead of the patient’s gender dysphoria. Paxton had asked Lau for $1 million, which includes civil penalties and other costs.
Shortly after filing the suit against Lau, Paxton used SB 14 to bring similar claims against two other doctors: El Paso endocrinologist Hector Granados and Brett Cooper, a Dallas pediatrician.
In September, the state quietly dropped its suit against Granados almost a year after bringing charges against him, finding that the doctor had stopped providing gender-affirming care to minors before the law took effect.
Last week, Cooper’s attorneys told the court that Paxton has issued misleading information that maligns Cooper’s character and intends to “poison the Collin County jury pool.”
“Before any evidence had been produced, Attorney General Paxton’s office issued two misleading press releases, insinuating that evidence showed Dr. Cooper had ‘knowingly’ and ‘illegally’ prescribed hormones for the purposes of gender transition,” attorneys said in the filing. “If the State continues to make unrestrained, misleading, and defamatory statements to the public, it will prevent Dr. Cooper from obtaining a fair and impartial jury.”
Cooper’s case is slated to go to trial in May over the allegations. He and Lau had both entered separate Rule 11 agreements that prevent them from practicing medicine on patients while the proceedings continue.
SB 14 commands the Texas Medical Board to revoke the license or other authorization to practice medicine from a physician who violates the law. The Texas Medical Association declined to comment on this case but said Texas physicians follow the laws of the state.
In Lau’s statement, she said she continues “to contend that the court has no jurisdiction over her, and contend that the court where the AG filed the case – the county where AG Paxton has a residence and where Dr. Lau did not practice medicine – is a legally invalid venue for the case.”
Lau specializes in adolescent female and male sexual and reproductive health, including gender dysphoria. Formerly an associate professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Lau is no longer listed on the website’s directory. UT Southwestern did not respond to a request for comment.
“We’re grateful for the Texas Attorney General’s leadership in protecting kids from these harmful treatments and procedures,” said Jonathan Covey, policy director of Texas Values, in a news release after Paxton filed the lawsuit against Lau. “No one is above the law, and it is horrific to hurt little children in order to advance radical gender ideology and play political games.”
Lau’s departure follows a trend of doctors who specialize in gender-affirming care leaving Texas, said Johnathan Gooch of Equality Texas. Gooch said this creates financial and practical hurdles for anyone seeking this type of care, including adults.
He said these challenges are only part of a broader cultural response to transgender people.
“When the government is consistently attacking services that are specifically provided to trans people, it emboldens … a small group of anti trans vigilantes to harass people on the streets, in the bathrooms, at the doctor’s office,” Gooch said. “And that’s really alarming and really scary for trans people in the state of Texas right now.”
For mental health support for LGBTQ youth, call the Trevor Project’s 24/7 toll-free support line at 866-488-7386. For trans peer support, call the Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860. You can also reach a trained crisis counselor through the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.
Great Job Texas Tribune, By Xiomara Moore & the Team @ KSAT San Antonio Source link for sharing this story.
