Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Children's Health System of Texas and a Dallas doctor Wednesday for allegedly violating a Texas ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
The AG asked a Collin County judge for a temporary injunction to stop the two defendants from providing any gender-affirming care or filing any claims to Texas Medicaid for that care.
The suit alleges Jason Jarin, a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist at Children's Health and associate professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, violated the law with 19 patients. It alleges he violated a 2023 law that prevents health care providers from giving transgender youth puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy or surgery for the purpose of transitioning — one of a number of Texas laws aimed at limiting the type of care transgender adults and children can receive.
Paxton also argues Jarin filed claims for these services with Texas Medicaid, which doesn't cover any gender-affirming care.
“This criminal extremist not only permanently harmed children, but he also then defrauded Medicaid and stuck Texas taxpayers with the bill for this insanity," Paxton wrote in a statement. "Experimental ‘transition’ procedures on minors are illegal, unethical, and will not be tolerated in Texas.”
Jarin told KERA News Wednesday morning he had just learned of the lawsuit, and declined to comment.
Children's Health told KERA in a statement its "top priority is the health and well-being of the patients and families we serve."
"We comply with all applicable local, state and federal health care laws. Due to ongoing legal proceedings, we are unable to comment further at this time," the statement read.
Jarin became an assistant professor at UT Southwestern in 2016 and has published studies on transgender children, according to his faculty profile.
Many of the lawsuit allegations claim he intentionally prescribed extra hormones for transgender kids leading up to Sept. 1, 2023, when the law took effect, so that they could continue to get treatment.
The law, known as Senate Bill 14, did allow for prescriptions to continue for children who were "already subject to a continuing course of treatment that began prior to June 1, 2023," and children who "attended at least 12 mental health counseling or psychotherapy sessions over a period of at least six months prior to starting treatment," according to Paxton's suit. But those prescriptions had to be for the purpose of weaning the patient off the drug.
Jarin is accused of violating SB 14 with 12 of the 19 patients. If found liable, he could lose his medical license — SB 14 requires the Texas Medical Board to revoke the license of any physician who provides gender-affirming care to a child.
Dylan Duke is KERA's Breaking News Reporter. Got a tip? Email Dylan Duke at dduke@kera.org.
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