In late October, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a second doctor for providing gender-affirming medical care to minors in the state, where Senate Bill 14 prohibits the prescribing of treatments like puberty blockers and hormones. It’s the latest punitive action taken to restrict access to trans health care in Texas, which has become a battleground for LGBTQ rights. As such, many are concerned about the message Paxton’s lawsuits sends to health care providers and trans people in the state and across the country.
Any form of restricting access to gender-affirming care will have a “chilling” effect on health care for transgender and gender-diverse people, said Dr. Alex Keuroghlian, the director of the Division of Public and Community Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.
