Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is dropping a request for a Seattle hospital to hand over records regarding gender-affirming treatment potentially given to children from Texas as part of a lawsuit settlement announced Monday.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is dropping a request for a Seattle hospital to hand over records regarding gender-affirming treatment potentially given to children from Texas as part of a lawsuit settlement announced Monday.

Seattle Children’s Hospital filed the lawsuit against Paxton’s office in December in response to the Republican appearing to go beyond state borders to investigate transgender health care. Paxton, a staunch conservative who has helped drive GOP efforts that target the rights of trans people, sent similar letters to Texas hospitals last year.

The Seattle hospital said in a statement that it had “successfully fought” the “overreaching demands to obtain confidential patient information.” A judge in Austin dismissed the lawsuit Friday, saying the parties had settled their dispute.

Texas is among states that have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.

  • IamSparticles@lemmy.zipEnglish
    92·
    7 months ago

    I think it’s hilarious that the Texas officials are trying to spin this as “We drove those evil child mutilators out of our state!” while SCH is just like “We never actually did any business in Texas. This doesn’t impact us.”

  • BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    75·
    7 months ago

    Good!

    Remember just a few years ago when the Republicans were crying about their vaccine status being a health issue and not wanting anyone to ask about it.

      • Chocrates@lemmy.world
        282·
        7 months ago

        Paxton is in a statewide office though, Gerrymandering is real but we have (had, I just moved out of our shithole state) no excuse for Paxton or Abbott. Other than conservatives have a thorough hold on Texas politics.

        • sleepdrifter@startrek.websiteEnglish
          17·
          7 months ago

          If I’m not mistaken, I’ve heard stories about it being prohibitively difficult to vote (long lines, inadequate staffing & # of locations, banning vote-by-car, a COVID response) in urban areas. Can’t imagine a lot of those barriers exist in more rural areas.

          • Chocrates@lemmy.world
            6·
            7 months ago

            It was the worst in Houston I think. Austin (I lived in the area for he entire time I was there) was never too bad, but the city was so liberal it was hard to get a county clerk that wanted to be a dick.

            • scoobford@lemmy.zip
              2·
              7 months ago

              Yeah, I’ve always voted in Arlington. They make you go to a specific polling place (or at least they told me they do, I didn’t show up at the “wrong” one to check), but otherwise they’re perfectly nice, provided you have ID and are registered. Line usually takes at most 30m, usually 0-15.

  • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
    53·
    7 months ago

    I dunno where Republicans got this idea that they can control the behavior of their citizens in other States but it’s unbelievably fucking stupid and enraging. No one is “owned” by a State simply because they are a resident of it. That’s some straight up Lord / Serf kind of thinking.

    • DragonTypeWyvern
      74·
      7 months ago

      Your mistake is in thinking that it’s just Republicans that think you’re a peasant.

      Some oligarchs might just believe, at least a little, in noblesse oblige, but the thing about noblesse oblige is it’s still a declaration of innate superiority.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
    52·
    7 months ago

    Paxton, a staunch conservative who has helped drive GOP efforts that target the rights of trans people fascist and a bigot

    There, fixed it for them.

  • mipadaitu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    381·
    7 months ago

    Would be great if there was a precedent set that this type of lawsuit wasn’t allowed, but I’m glad we’re not gambling those kid’s safety on a Texas court, even if it was in Austin.

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.worldEnglish
    29·
    7 months ago

    Might be time to start paper-charting for politically sensitive operations. Billing and everything. Get the process done, give a copy to the patient to do with what they will, and shred everything hospital side.

    Protecting patient’s from neonazis is becoming a routine part of healthcare.

  • rustydrd@sh.itjust.works
    22·
    7 months ago

    The party of States’ Rights™ going outside of their states’ jurisdiction to enforce state-level laws. All this work, and for what? To make a handful of people miserable, who found help at this particular hospital? For the legal precedent to make more people miserable?

    • evatronic@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      7 months ago

      For the legal precedent to make more people miserable?

      Shopping for a case that the SCOTUS might hear.

    • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
      4·
      7 months ago

      All this work, and for what? To make a handful of people miserable, who found help at this particular hospital?

      To please the religious. For them they are doing lord’s work.

  • magnetosphere@fedia.io
    16·
    7 months ago

    This shitstain tried really hard to make a loss sound like a win. He failed miserably.

    “When we merely began asking questions, [someone needs to tell him that ‘only asking questions’ has become a joke about sealioning] they decided to leave the State of Texas [I don’t understand how they could ‘leave’ when they never advertised or did business there in the first place] and forfeit the opportunity to do business here,[which was probably a very easy choice for a business based in Seattle]” Paxton said in a news release Monday.