Seattle Children's Hospital sues Texas over 'sham' demand for transgender medical records

Seattle Children's Hospital sued the office of Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) on Dec. 7, asking a Travis County District Court to nullify or rein in Paxton's subpoena for any patient records of Texas residents who received gender-affirming care through the Washington hospital, news organizations reported Thursday.

A Texas law that took effect earlier this year bans the use of puberty blockers or hormone therapy on transgender minors in the state. Washington allows such treatments for transgender youths and recently passed a "shield law" blocking legal cooperation "with a subpoena, warrant, court order or other civil or criminal legal process for records" from out of state related to gender-affirming or reproductive health services legal in Washington.

Seattle Children's said providing Paxton the records he requested in the Nov. 17 investigative subpoena would violate Washington's shield law and state and federal medical privacy laws, and constitute "an unconstitutional attempt to investigate and chill potential travel by Texas residents to obtain health care in another state." It called Paxton's citing potential violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act a "sham." 

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The hospital also said the Texas attorney general has no jurisdiction in Washington state. Seattle Children's has no presence in Texas and doesn't provide "gender-affirming care" for anybody in the state in person or using telemedicine, a hospital administration said in a sworn affidavit.

The subpoena is the "latest effort" by Paxton and other Texas Republicans to "scrutinize the lives of transgender Texans and their families," The Texas Tribune reported. Earlier this year, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate the families of transgender children receiving transition-related care for "child abuse," and a year earlier Paxton requested a list of all Texans who had changed their gender on their state driver's license.

Texas isn't the only GOP-led state that has criminalized gender-affirming care and targeted hospitals that provide it, but "Paxton's legal battle with Seattle Children's Hospital marks a rare instance of conservative officials reaching the state's long arm beyond their own borders," The Washington Post added. 

Traveling out of state for gender-affirming care isn't even illegal in Texas, Austin attorney Ian Pittman told the Post. Paxton and other Texas GOP officials "think that by harassing families like this, and generally making the state inhospitable," they can drive out families with transgender children and attract more conservatives to the state, keeping them in power, he argued.