On Thursday, a state judge ruled that gender reassignment surgery and other transgender procedures can temporarily continue at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, The Hill reported.
The blockbuster two-week injunction granted to Genecis Clinic head Ximena Lopez, a pediatric endocrinologist at UT Southwestern and co-chair of the Transgender Health Special Interest Group of the Pediatric Endocrine Society, follows over 47 pieces of legislation proposed in Texas to limit the procedures statewide.
The clinic ”provides nonbinary and transgender youth with gender-affirming services,” according to The Hill.
Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, both Republicans, also sought to restrict the treatments through several opinions labeling the procedures ”child abuse” and orders calling for the investigation of parents of patients who are minors and doctors who perform the procedures.
Lopez had filed a lawsuit in March to restart the transgender procedures, which were halted last year, in the two medical center. According to The Dallas Morning News, her lawyers argued that halting the procedures would cause ”irreparable injury” and discrimination against transgender youth.
In late March, the two Dallas hospitals said that the Genecis program branding had been removed following new laws from the state.
”After legislative hearings last year brought additional scrutiny of our care, the GENECIS brand became a lightning rod for the controversy over hormone therapy for gender dysphoria, and we made the joint decision to remove the branding so we could care for our patients in a more protective environment,” the hospitals wrote at the time.
”In contrast to how this has been characterized by some, no clinic has been closed, and we continue to accept new patients referred for potential gender dysphoria.”
The statement noted, however, that UT Southwestern was still providing the procedures to minors.
”Our clinics for youths experiencing or needing evaluation for gender dysphoria were never closed and have been actively accepting new patients,” they added.
Abbott and Paxton are seeking reelection this year. Paxton faces George P. Bush in the May 24 primary runoff.
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