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Texas law recognizes that giving “gender transitioning” drugs to children causes serious and even irreparable harm. Its legal action against Dr. May Lau should be a reminder to doctors that they are not God and that they will be held accountable if and when they break the law.
Texas has filed suit against a doctor who illegally provided gender transition drugs to children and then falsified medical records, prescriptions, and insurance billing codes to cover up her activities.
Dr. May Lau, medical director of the Adolescent and Young Adult clinic at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas and a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, is accused of prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to 22 minors in violation of Texas law.
Texas law, SB 14, which went into effect on September 1, 2023, prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to minors for the purpose of gender transitions and also prohibits anyone performing sex change operations on minors.
The suit calls Lau a “scofflaw” and a “radical gender activist” who has written numerous publications advocating for gender transitions in teens and children.
Following the enacting of SB 14, Lau is alleged to have continued to prescribe puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to teenagers ages 14 to 17. Of the 22 minors, 21 are believed to be female, and Lau is said to have prescribed testosterone cypionate injections to those females for the purpose of gender transitions.
Texas argues that the FDA and the Mayo Clinic state that testosterone cypionate is not for use in females.
The suit also claims that Dr. Lau broke Texas laws on deceptive business practices by falsifying patient medical records, prescriptions, and billing records to deceive pharmacies, insurance companies, and potentially patients.
The suit specifically lays out evidence of how Lau engaged in deceptive practices in her treatment of the lone male patient.
Lau originally listed the patient as male on his medical records and falsely billed his insurance company for an “endocrine disorder, unspecified.” Lau diagnosed the male with gender dysphoria and inserted a puberty blocker device to help him start the transition. Lau later changed the patient’s sex to female on his medical billing records.
The patient then met with Dr. Izzy Lowell, the founder of QueerMed, which exclusively treats transgender patients. Lowell also falsely billed insurance for treatment of an unspecified endocrine disorder when she was really facilitating the child’s gender transition.
The minor then went back to Lau, who falsely billed insurance for removal of the puberty blocker device, saying once again that it was part of the treatment for the endocrine disorder when it was actually for gender transition.
The same day the patient visited a different provider at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas who used the proper billing code for gender identity disorder, unspecified.
The suit claims Lau and Lowell established a pattern “of false, misleading, and deceptive acts by choosing to falsify Patient Twenty-Two’s biological sex, medical records, diagnoses, treatment plan, prescriptions, and billing records to conceal that they were transitioning Patient Twenty-Two’s biological sex or affirming their belief that their gender identity is inconsistent with their biological sex.”
Texas argues that puberty is a natural adolescent process, not an endocrinological problem, stating in its suit:
“Children normally enter puberty reflecting their biological sex. There is no disorder at all. Rather, the disorder results when a physician intervenes in a child’s natural puberty to induce through puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones a state of puberty naturally occurring in the opposite sex. Such physician causes a disorder rather than treats one, by introducing supraphysiological dose of a cross-sex hormone to force a child’s body (a biological reality) to fit that child’s gender identity (a mental construct).”
The suit asks for an injunction that blocks Lau from prescribing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to minors or from deceptively billing insurance companies for the purpose of gender transitions.
Texas is asking that Lau pay fines of not more than $10,000 for each violation, Texas’s legal fees, and any other relief to which it is found to be entitled.
In a press release, Attorney General Ken Paxton stated that each violation of the different laws serves as an independent ground to have Lau’s medical license revoked by the Texas Medical Board.
This is the first time a state has pursued legal action against a doctor for violating its legal prohibitions on medically transitioning a minor.
“Today, enforcement begins against those who have violated the law by providing, prescribing, administering, or dispensing cross-sex hormones to minors for the purposes of transitioning their biological sex or affirming the child’s belief that their gender identity is inconsistent with their biological sex,” the suit states.
If these allegations are true then Dr. Lau has blatantly defied a state law that is intended to protect children from life-altering medical experimentation.
Texas didn’t pass this law on a whim. These so-called “treatments” in minors have been shown to cause numerous harms, including loss of bone density, atrophy of genitals, heart problems, sexual dysfunction, infertility, urinary problems, endocrine disorders, mental health issues, brain swelling, and an increased risk of suicide.
This is why several European nations have now stopped allowing the use of these drugs and surgeries in minors. They have no benefits and pose serious risks to children who are unable to fully understand — or consent to — the medical interventions they think they need.
Puberty can be scary and uncomfortable for a child, particularly those with comorbidities. Many children who seek to transition suffer from mental health illnesses, such as bipolar disorder; developmental delays such as autism; and/or trauma-induced issues. When these minors, or any other child, feel confused, different than others, or alarmed by the changes happening to them, they may desperately want those changes to stop or to somehow change their sex or to renounce their sex altogether.
Doctors, therapists, and parents should help children understand that this natural transition from childhood to adulthood is a part of God’s design. No amount of medical intervention can change a person’s sex. Efforts to do so only lead to the horrors we have already witnessed and to which detransitioners have testified.
Laws like these exist to protect children. Not only should they be passed in every state across the country, but they must also be enforced.
Dr. Lau allegedly broke her ethical commitment to “first, do no harm” to her patients and breached the public trust by lying and falsifying records. Hopefully, this action by Texas will be a reminder to physicians that they are not God but regular citizens who will be held accountable when they break the law.
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