Texas Children’s Hospital has not signed the settlement Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed to have secured in May — and reporters asking questions about it are getting stonewalled.
On May 15, Paxton’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice announced they had secured settlement agreements forcing the hospital to stop transgender medical procedures on minors, create a detransition clinic, and pay $10 million in settlement costs.
The federal announcement said Texas Children’s Hospital “has entered into agreements” that “include commitments to not perform such procedures on children.” The Texas AG’s office said Paxton “secured a historic settlement.”
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, The Federalist has repeatedly asked the DOJ, the Texas attorney general’s office, and Texas Children’s Hospital media staff for details about the supposed settlement. The questions have met complete silence.
On Friday, a phone call to the Texas AG’s media affairs staff was answered by a man who said he couldn’t hear, then hung up.
On June 1, the Texas Tribune reported that their written request for the settlement led the Texas AG’s office to send them a “term sheet” listing 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.”
ABC13 in Houston reported the same thing on June 10, again describing 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.
With no signed settlement, no evidence suggests Texas Children’s Hospital has begun creating the detransition clinic. A search of the hospital website for detransition services on Friday produced zero results.
A Federalist reporter called the hospital switchboard Friday and asked to speak to someone about the detransition clinic. After a long silence, the operator replied: “I don’t have any information on that.”
Soon after, the hospital’s media affairs office sent The Federalist a one-sentence statement: “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.'”
The Federalist will continue to watch for the completion of an actual settlement agreement and to ask questions about the details when it finally happens.
