It’s horrible, and there’s no end in sight.
Still a crook any way you look
A Dallas pediatrician has surrendered her medical license, a year after becoming the first target of a law that banned providing gender-transitioning hormones to minors.
Last October, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against adolescent medicine physician May Lau for prescribing testosterone to at least 21 patients. Her license was cancelled by her request early this month, according to the Texas Medical Board.
In a statement to The Texas Tribune, Lau maintained her innocence.
“Dr. Lau decided to move her medical practice to Oregon and saw no reason to continue to maintain her Texas license,” according to a statement provided by her attorney Craig Smyser. “Dr. Lau continues to deny the Texas Attorney General’s politically- and ideologically-driven allegations.”
The case was the first brought under Senate Bill 14, a 2023 law that prohibits physicians and health care providers from prescribing hormones to minors to transition their biological sex. The suit accused Lau of violating the law by authorizing the use of testosterone by at least 21 patients between the ages of 14 and 17 to transition their biological gender or affirm their gender identity.
Lau surrendering her license was “a major victory for our state,” Paxton said in a Friday news release.
[…]
Shortly after filing the suit against Lau, Paxton used SB 14 to bring similar claims against two other doctors: El Paso endocrinologist Hector Granados and Brett Cooper, a Dallas pediatrician.
In September, the state quietly dropped its suit against Granados almost a year after bringing charges against him, finding that the doctor had stopped providing gender-affirming care to minors before the law took effect.
Last week, Cooper’s attorneys told the court that Paxton has issued misleading information that maligns Cooper’s character and intends to “poison the Collin County jury pool.”
“Before any evidence had been produced, Attorney General Paxton’s office issued two misleading press releases, insinuating that evidence showed Dr. Cooper had ‘knowingly’ and ‘illegally’ prescribed hormones for the purposes of gender transition,” attorneys said in the filing. “If the State continues to make unrestrained, misleading, and defamatory statements to the public, it will prevent Dr. Cooper from obtaining a fair and impartial jury.”
Cooper’s case is slated to go to trial in May over the allegations. He and Lau had both entered separate Rule 11 agreements that prevent them from practicing medicine on patients while the proceedings continue.
SB 14 commands the Texas Medical Board to revoke the license or other authorization to practice medicine from a physician who violates the law. The Texas Medical Association declined to comment on this case but said Texas physicians follow the laws of the state.
In Lau’s statement, she said she continues “to contend that the court has no jurisdiction over her, and contend that the court where the AG filed the case – the county where AG Paxton has a residence and where Dr. Lau did not practice medicine – is a legally invalid venue for the case.”
Lau specializes in adolescent female and male sexual and reproductive health, including gender dysphoria. Formerly an associate professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Lau is no longer listed on the website’s directory. UT Southwestern did not respond to a request for comment.
See here, here, here, and here for the background. I wish I had something positive to say here, to end on a more upbeat note, but I don’t. Right now there’s nothing stopping Paxton from this hateful rampage. We’re in a deep hole and it’s going to take awhile to get out of it.