The CEO of Texas Children’s Hospital, Mark Wallace, has announced that the nation’s largest children’s hospital will cease providing transgender medical procedures for children.
The hospital’s decision aligns with Senate Bill 14, a recently passed legislation in a vote mainly along party lines on May 11.
The legislation will take effect on Sept. 1 once it is signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, who has signaled he will do so.
Under the legislation, procedures and treatments for gender transitioning, gender reassignment, or gender dysphoria that are intended to transition a child’s biological sex, will be banned.
Such procedures include those that sterilize children, such as castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, and vaginoplasty, as well as drugs that induce temporary or permanent infertility, or block or delay normal puberty.
In a memo to staff shared on Twitter, Wallace said the bill has “clear and direct programmatic implications for our patients, families, faculty, staff, and care teams” adding that over the next few months, the hospital will “modify” its “gender-affirming care to comply with the new law.”
The CEO said the hospital will work with patients and their families to find alternatives for gender surgeries and hormone therapies out-of-state, and will “continue to offer psychological support and any form of care within the bounds of the law.”
“The transition we will embark on is going to be immensely heart-wrenching, but we will lead through this adversity and navigate these next steps together with grace, love, and compassion like we always do,” Wallace said.
Wallace also noted that as the largest pediatric health care provider in the nation, “being unable to serve and support these children and families the way we have in the past is painful.”
“It is difficult for me, the In-Chiefs & Chairs, executives, faculty, staff, and care teams to know that this is where we find ourselves,” he continued.
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