Contrary to previous reporting, including from The Federalist, Texas Children’s Hospital hasn’t signed a settlement committing to ending sex-rejecting procedures on minors.
On May 15, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced they had secured settlement agreements with Texas Children’s Hospital over that hospital’s participation in transgender medical procedures for minors. As a result of the agreements, both announcements said, the hospital had agreed to create a detransition clinic and pay $10 million in settlement costs.
With emphasis added, the federal announcement said “Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) has entered into agreements with the Department and the Texas Attorney General that include commitments to not perform such procedures on children,” while the state announcement said that “Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a historic settlement with Texas Children’s Hospital.”
That wasn’t true. What they had was a general list of topics on which the hospital and the government agencies had agreed in principle, serving as the basis for continued negotiations toward an actual settlement.
Since the announcements were made, The Federalist has repeatedly asked the DOJ, the Texas attorney general’s office, and the media affairs office at Texas Children’s Hospital a long series of questions about the details of the supposed settlement, and our questions have met complete silence. On Friday, a phone call to the media affairs staff of the Texas AG’s office was answered by a man who said he said he couldn’t hear, then hung up.
But some hints about the “settlement agreement” have begun to appear in Texas media. On June 1, the Texas Tribune reported that their written request for the settlement had instead led the Texas AG’s office to send them a “term sheet” that lists the details of an agreement in principle, “and not the complete settlement document between the two parties, as originally requested because one has not been signed.”
On June 10, ABC13 in Houston reported the same thing, again describing the details of a term sheet. “The settlement hasn’t been finalized yet, so there are still questions on exactly when it will go into effect,” their story concluded.
In the absence of a signed settlement with terms that are provable and publicly available, no evidence suggests that Texas Children’s Hospital has begun to create the much-discussed detransition clinic. A search of the hospital website for detransition services on Friday produced this result:
A reporter from The Federalist called the hospital switchboard on Friday and asked to speak to the person who could discuss the detransition clinic. After a long silence, the operator offered this reply: “I don’t have any information on that.”
Soon after, the media affairs office at Texas Children’s Hospital sent The Federalist a one-sentence statement by email: “Out of respect for the ongoing settlement process, we will not be making any further statements at this time as the matter proceeds through the proper channels.”
The settlement, described in May as having been “secured” is an “ongoing settlement process.” We’ll continue to watch for the completion of an actual settlement agreement, and to ask questions about the details when it finally happens.
