Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has agreed to drop his requests that a Seattle hospital turn over records regarding gender-affirming care potentially given to Texas minors as a settlement agreement ended a monthslong court battle over the petitions.
Seattle Children’s Hospital sued Paxton in December to block his demands for the medical records of any Texas residents under the age of 18 who might have received gender-affirming medical treatments from the out-of-state hospital. Texas lawmakers in May passed Senate Bill 14, which prohibits doctors in Texas from providing certain gender-affirming medical treatments — including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and certain surgeries — to minors experiencing gender dysphoria, a condition in which a person’s gender identity doesn’t match their sex at birth.
A Travis County state district judge dismissed the lawsuit Friday after the settlement was reached, according to court records.
“Seattle Children’s successfully fought the Texas Attorney General’s overreaching demands to obtain confidential patient information,” a hospital spokesperson wrote in an email to the American-Statesman on Monday evening after the settlement was announced. “As a result, the Texas Attorney General withdrew his request.”