Boom: Texas, DoJ Force Houston Hospital to Open First ‘Detransition’ Clinic In Landmark Settlement

Ten million dollars. A new, first-in-the-nation clinic to unwind the damage done to children caught up in the pediatric-sex-change industry’s machinations. Stripping five of its practitioners of access to more potential victims.

Texas AG Ken Paxton may or may not prevail in his runoff against John Cornyn for the US Senate nomination, but he certainly landed a final argument about the value of his tenure as the state’s highest law-enforcement official. Paxton partnered with the Department of Justice to force the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston into a settlement based on fraudulent Medicare billing. The settlement ends pediatric sex-change practices at the hospital for good:

Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) in Houston agreed to stop administering puberty blockers to children, pay $10 million in penalties and open a “detransition clinic” after a sweeping probe from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the state of Texas.

The resolution brings to a close a years-long investigation by Texas’ Healthcare Program Enforcement Division, which concluded that TCH fraudulently billed Texas Medicaid for “unallowable and illegal ‘gender-transition’ interventions,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a Friday statement.

Readers may recall that this probe began when a TCH doctor blew the whistle on its persistence in pursuing sex-change therapies for children. Dr. Ethan Haim got targeted in a DoJ indictment ginned up by Merrick Garland et al in retaliation for exposing the practices to which TCH now admits. Haim had sent redacted files proving that TCH continued these practices after a March 2022 promise to stop, allowing Christopher Rufo to expose TCH. 

The DoJ dropped the case in January 2025. Alliance Defending Freedom celebrated Haim’s fight a month later:

Nearly two years ago, armed federal agents showed up on Dr. Eithan Haim’s doorstep because he spoke a truth that the government didn’t like.

A month earlier, Dr. Haim had exposed Texas Children’s Hospital for inflicting harm on minors through administering puberty blockers and hormones for “gender transition” efforts—all done in secret, after the hospital publicly disavowed such “treatments.”

The case against Dr. Haim could have cost him a decade of his life in federal prison. But, praise God, the truth prevailed, and the Department of Justice has dropped the charges against Dr. Haim.

Haim is now suing the hospital over its retaliation. He announced the suit in January of this year, backed by Elon Musk:

Haim is suing Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Larry Hollier Jr., a board-certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Kristy Rialon, an associate professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine and pediatric surgeon at Texas Children’s, and Afsheen Davis, the general counsel for Texas Children’s.

The lawsuit challenges “the malicious prosecution against Dr. Haim for blowing the whistle on Texas Children’s Hospital’s efforts to conceal the existence of their Transgender Health Program.”

Hollier was the key witness who “knowingly lied” to federal authorities at HHS, FBI, and DOJ to “fabricate a story that would serve as the predicate for the criminal investigation and eventual prosecution” against Haim, the lawsuit states.

Rialon posted a number of “anonymous defamatory reviews” on Haim’s public WebMD profile while he was still an anonymous whistleblower and his identity had not been made public. Her reviews, according to the lawsuit, “accused him of mutilating and raping his patients.” In one post, she pretended to be a female patient who had been raped by Haim.

Her posts, according to the lawsuit, were intended to encourage the government’s prosecution as well as punish Haim for “exposing Texas Children’s Hospital’s deception and her complicity in the misconduct.” Rialon admitted to the FBI that she posted these claims against Haim under fake names, the lawsuit notes.

Despicable. Merrick Garland’s DoJ weaponized its authority to silence Haim in retaliation for exposing the mutilation and sterilization of children, and the pediatric-transitioner industry attempted to ruin him through defamation for it. The state medical board should take a hard look at the licenses of these defendants if and when Haim presents evidence at trial. The DoJ and Paxton have not publicized the names of the five physicians whose access at TCH has been terminated; perhaps there is some overlap here already.

As for TCH, the DoJ chose to characterize their engagement as cooperative:

Under the terms of the agreements, which the Department of Justice reached in coordination with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, TCH will pay $10 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false billings to public and private payors to secure insurance coverage for pediatric sex-rejecting procedures.  The Department alleges this conduct violated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the False Claims Act, and federal fraud and conspiracy laws.  Critically, in addition to terminating these services, TCH has committed to establishing the first-of-its-kind clinic dedicated to restorative care for detransitioners.

In connection with the settlements, the United States acknowledged that TCH took significant steps entitling it to credit for cooperation with the Department in its investigation.  At all times during the investigation, TCH remained cooperative, proactive, and solution-driven, as highlighted by its multi-million-dollar commitment to providing care to the victims who most need it.

In their own statement, TCH sounded much less enthusiastic about cooperation:

Texas Children’s said in a statement Friday it “made the difficult decision” to settle to avoid prolonged litigation after spending three years responding to investigations by Paxton’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice.

• The hospital said that it has been “navigating an unconscionable campaign of mistruths and mischaracterizations” during that time. The hospital said it produced more than 5 million documents during the investigations and maintained that it complied with the law.
• “To be clear – we are settling to protect our resources from endless and costly litigation. This settlement will allow us to redirect those precious resources to focus on the life-saving care and groundbreaking discoveries of our exceptional clinicians and scientists,” the hospital said.

Paxton is leaving the AG office after deciding to challenge Cornyn in the GOP primary for his Senate seat. Chip Roy and Mayes Middleton are fighting in a runoff for the nomination to replace Paxton. Whoever wins this race had better keep TCH and its Moloch-driven pediatric surgeons on a very tight leash. In the meantime, kudos to Paxton and to the Trump-era DoJ for putting an end to child mutilation, chemical and surgical, in Houston. 

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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