Texas Children's Hospital Opens a Detransition Clinic Under Its $10 Million Settlement With Paxton, One Week Before He Faces Talarico

Texas Children's Hospital has opened a clinic for patients who want care after gender-transition treatment, Breitbart reports in an exclusive.

The clinic. "BREAKING: The nation's first-ever Detransition Clinic is now open as a result of my historic settlement with Texas Children's Hospital," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote on X on Tuesday. Per the hospital's website, as Breitbart describes it, the clinic offers individualized, multidisciplinary detransition-related care through age 21, plus related obstetric and gynecologic care for older patients. Listed specialties include endocrinology, surgery, primary care, fertility counseling, psychiatry, psychology, social work and speech pathology. Patients request appointments online and start with a virtual triage visit.

The settlement. The agreement requires the hospital to provide the clinic's services free for five years and promote it on its website. It also required a $10 million payment, permanently ending the privileges of three current physicians, permanently barring two former physicians from getting privileges at Texas Children's-affiliated facilities, and operational changes including employee training and limits on gender-transition procedures. It resolved allegations that the hospital submitted false claims to government health programs for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and other treatments using false diagnosis codes. Paxton's office and the Justice Department investigated.

The whistleblower. The case began with a complaint from Vanessa Sivadge, a former hospital nurse who says patients kept getting treatment in the endocrinology and gynecology departments after a 2022 announcement that the hospital had stopped gender-affirming care for minors. She went public in June 2024, was placed on leave and was fired that August, which she calls retaliation. Sivadge told Breitbart the clinic is "an acknowledgment that patients who need detransition-related care deserve to be seen, supported, and treated with dignity."

The Senate race. The clinic opened one week before the Nov. 3 election, when Paxton faces Democrat James Talarico for U.S. Senate. Breitbart sets out Paxton's record on the issue and cites Talarico's 2023 vote against Texas Senate Bill 14, which restricts some gender-transition treatments for minors, and remarks he has made supporting transgender children. Those characterizations are Breitbart's.

Paxton said, "I will continue to ensure that this clinic provides the care and support that victims of the radical left's gender ideology deserve."

Note for readers: this is Breitbart's account, built on statements from Paxton and Sivadge. The excerpt we reviewed does not quote the hospital or Talarico's campaign. Allegations in the settlement were resolved by agreement.