transgender

Texas Children’s Hospital Settles with Feds for Performing Sex-Rejecting Procedures on Minors

Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) will pay millions of dollars in civil penalties and establish America’s first ever “detransition” clinic to avoid federal prosecution for alleged fraud, the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed today.

The groundbreaking settlement is the first struck since last April, when the department began investigating federal crimes related to hospitals and doctors performing sex-rejecting procedures on children.

“The Justice Department will use every weapon at its disposal to end the destructive and discredited practice of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ for children,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in a press release.

“Today’s resolution protects vulnerable children, holds providers accountable and ensures those harmed receive the care they need.”

The settlement, which TCH entered with the DOJ and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, requires the hospital to:

  • Stop performing sex-rejecting surgeries and hormone interventions on minors.
  • Fire and de-credential five doctors who performed sex-rejecting procedures on minors.
  • Pay $10 million in damages and civil penalties to “resolve allegations” that it committed insurance fraud to pay for sex-rejecting procedures.
  • Commit to establish a clinic dedicated to “the provision of medical care to detransitioners.”

TCH will cover all costs of the detransition clinic for the first five years, per Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In exchange, the DOJ will not prosecute TCH for allegedly:

  • Stealing taxpayer money to fund sex-rejecting procedures for minors.
  • Misleading minors and their families about the long-term effects of sex-rejecting procedures.

The hospital cooperated fully with the investigation, according to the DOJ’s press release.

Allegations of fraud began dogging TCH in June 2024, when Vanessa Sivadge, a nurse practitioner in the hospital’s endocrinology program, told investigative journalist Christopher Rufo that some TCH patients paid for sex-rejecting treatments using Texas’ Medicaid program.

Sivadge’s testimony prompted state and federal investigations into the hospital. Representatives Pete Sessions (TX) and Lisa McClain (MI), members of the House Oversight Committee, launched a probe into TCH in July 2024, writing:

We are concerned that medical providers at TCH are falsifying diagnosis codes for patients seeking gender transition care to obtain Medicaid payment for noncovered services.

Investigators expressed specific interest in an incident in which a TCH doctor allegedly diagnosed a female patient with testosterone deficiency and hypergonadism so Medicaid would cover her sex-rejecting testosterone treatments.

TCH fired Sivadge in August 2024 for exposing their fraud, she maintains.

No matter how cooperative the hospital may seem in 2026, Sivadge’s story is just one example of how the hospital’s deceptive conduct and radical commitment to gender ideology has left a path of destruction in its wake.

When Dr. Eithan Haim exposed the hospital for continuing to perform sex-rejecting procedures on minors after telling the public it had stopped, he became the target of a rabid DOJ prosecution based on faulty facts.

For nearly a year, until the suit was dismissed in January 2025, Dr. Haim and his growing family wondered if he would spend the next decade in prison.

In January 2026, Dr. Haim sued TCH, Baylor College of Medicine and their representatives for feeding the DOJ the false information which led to his wrongful prosecution.

After so many years of turmoil, the Daily Citizen asked Dr. Haim how today’s settlement feels.

“It is not possible to communicate what it is like when the federal leviathan is weaponized to destroy your life — not because you committed a crime, but because you upheld one of [medicine’s] most sacred virtues,” he told us, continuing:

I’ve seen this evil up close and lived with that terror every second of every day for years. I’ve also witnessed extraordinary courage, honor and dignity from those who sacrificed alongside me.
I always believed [that sacrifice] would one day be worth it.
Today is that day.

Additional Articles and Resources

House Oversight Committee Investigates Texas Children’s Medicaid Fraud

Nurse Whistleblower Lobbies Texas Senate to Investigate Fraud at Texas Children’s Hospital

Texas Children’s Hospital Embroiled in Fraud Scandal as Haim Case Kicks Off

Whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim Sues Texas Children’s Hospital Over Malicious Prosecution

Haim Vindicated – DOJ Dismisses Case Against Whistleblower

President Trump Signs Order Protecting Children from Transgender Medical Interventions

HHS Releases Report on Harms of ‘Transgender Medical Interventions for Minors

California House Passes Bill Mandating Coverage for ‘Transgender’ Mutilation

The California Assembly doubled down on forcing medical coverage for dangerous and disfiguring “transgender” medical mutilation of individuals – including minors – who reject their innate, God-given sex. 

AB 1876 bans discrimination in health care insurance based on a person’s “sex,” along with other characteristics such as race, color, age or disability. It then redefines “sex” in health care plans “to include gender identity, sexual orientation, and related characteristics.” 

The bill sailed through two committees before passing the full Assembly, 56-17. An additional seven members had “No Vote Recorded,” which count for no votes in the legislature. 

California Family Council, a Focus on the Family-allied organization, explained AB 1876 was “framed as a ‘nondiscrimination’ measure,” adding: 

By redefining sex to include gender identity, sexual orientation, and related characteristics, the bill would prohibit insurers from denying or limiting coverage for procedures tied to gender transition if those procedures are covered in other contexts.

That means puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and irreversible surgeries would be treated as protected medical services, making it far more difficult for insurers to question their necessity, especially for minors. The bill also bans categorical exclusions for gender-transition procedures, effectively narrowing insurers’ ability to weigh long-term risks, evolving evidence, or patient age.

Dubbed the “Fair Care for All Act,” Assemblywoman Dawn Addis introduced AB 1876 in the Assembly Judiciary Committee, saying, “I’ll note that this is a priority bill of the LGBT caucus and sponsored by Equality California.” 

California’s LGBT caucus has 14 members, all Democrats, making up 12% of the entire Legislature and 16% of Democrat legislators. Equality California has tremendous influence in the state Legislature. The largest LGBT state advocacy group in the country, it is responsible for helping to propose and pass 205 bills and resolutions in California since its founding in 1999. 

The legislation was also supported by groups like Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, the ACLU and Reproductive Freedom for All California. Planned Parenthood is the largest suppliers of opposite-sex hormones in the U.S., helping to destroy the reproductive capacity of more than 40,000 individuals in 2023 alone. “Reproductive freedom” evidently includes the “right” to remove healthy organs and mutilate one’s body. 

Addis said the mandate was necessary because of Trump administration actions to protect children from destructive gender ideology. 

Shortly after assuming office, President Donald Trump signed executive orders making it official government policy that there are only two genders: male and female and protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation. 

These orders led the Department of Justice to target medical professionals and institutions that mutilate children with experimental “transgender” interventions that leave children sterile, sick and permanently damaged.

The president’s actions also led to the Department of Health and Human Services releasing an important report on the paucity of evidence for transgender medical interventions: Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria Review of Evidence and Best Practices. 

The agency evaluated 17 systematic reviews of chemical and surgical treatments inflicted on youth and found “significant risks – including irreversible harms such as infertility – while finding very weak evidence of benefit.”

But the California Legislature seems bent on promoting these harms – and forcing insurance providers to participate in the damage. 

California Family Council Vice President Greg Burt voiced the pro-family organization’s opposition to AB 1876: 

By treating an insurer’s denial of coverage as unlawful discrimination, AB 1876 removes insurers’ discretion to assess medical necessity, long-term risks, and evolving scientific evidence, particularly when the patient is a minor. 

These interventions carry serious lifelong consequences, including impacts on bone density, fertility, cardiovascular health, and neurological development. Surgical procedures performed on minors are permanent and irreversible.

He added that the bill also “raises serious religious liberty concerns, forcing employers and individuals to subsidize procedures that violate deeply held beliefs.” 

AB 1876 now moves on to the California Senate. 

Related articles and resources: 

For those struggling with transgenderism, and their families, Focus on the Family’s Counseling Department offers help from licensed counselors. To request a conversation with Focus on the Family’s Counseling Department, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Mountain Time), or complete our Counseling Consultation Request Form. Please be prepared to leave your contact information for a counselor to return a call to you as soon as possible. The consultation is available at no cost to you due to generous donor support.

California Family Council

California Family Council: CA Bill Mandates Coverage of Sex-Rejecting Procedures for Minors

DOJ Targets Those Mutilating Children with ‘Transgender’ Drugs and Surgeries

HHS Releases Report on Harms of ‘Transgender’ Medical Interventions for Minors

Medicalizing Gender Confusion Makes Things Worse, New Research Confirms

Pam Bondi Directs DOJ Attorneys to Investigate Transgender Procedures for Minors

President Trump Signs Order Protecting Children From Transgender Medical Interventions

President Trump: ‘There are Only Two Genders: Male and Female’

ReFOCUS with Jim Daly: Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

ReFOCUS with Jim Daly: Chloe Cole: Gender Reassignment Surgery Regret

Sixteen States Sue Trump Administration for Protecting Children from ‘Trans’ Procedures

The WPATH Files – Transgender Interventions Are ‘Unethical Medical Experiments’

‘Detransitioner’ Wins Settlement Against Therapists Who Referred Her for Double Mastectomy

Camille Kiefel, a woman who once believed she was “non-binary,” won a settlement against two therapists who referred her for a double mastectomy as a “gender affirming” medical procedure. 

She’s the second young woman in recent months to receive compensation after undergoing disfiguring “transgender” medical interventions. In February, a New York jury awarded Fox Varian $2 million dollars in a malpractice lawsuit against medical professionals who attempted to “transition” her to look like the opposite sex.

Investigative journalist Benjamin Ryan was the first to report the confidential settlement, saying it was reached “just days before the trial was slated to begin.” Kiefel had asked for $3.5 million in her malpractice lawsuit. 

The Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF), a self-described “radical feminist group” which opposes transgender ideology, supported Kiefel in her legal battle as her financial sponsor. The initial malpractice complaint, filed in December 2022, targeted Licensed Clinical Social Worker Amy Ruff and Licensed Professional Counselor Mara Burmeister, along with the two Oregon health care clinics that employed them. 

The lawsuit described some of the difficulties Kiefel struggled with, saying she “experienced severe childhood traumatic events leading to her feeling discomfort and dissociation with her body.” 

In addition, Kiefel “had a history of mental health diagnosis,” including attention deficithyperactivity disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. These conditions “proved treatment-resistant despite nearly two decades of psychotherapy and prescribed medications for ADHD, depression, and anxiety with a variety of therapists over many years.” 

Kiefel began “identifying” as “non-binary” in 2016, underwent breast removal surgery in 2020 at age 30. In 2022, Kiefel accepted that she was a woman. 

But the damage was done. 

In a Newsweek article, Kiefel described the ridiculous ideology that supports surgery to become “non-binary”: 

And the weird thing, too, about being non-binary, is what do you even transition to? There’s no non-binary sex to transition to.

The suit alleged that “Ruff held one Zoom session with [Kiefel], lasting approximately an hour,” before writing a referral for her to have “chest reduction to relieve gender dysphoria.” The suit said Ruff’s letter had statements she “knew were factually false and/or misleading,” and she did not exercise “reasonable care” in her assessment or even review Kiefel’s medical or mental health records before recommending surgery, the complaint added. 

Kiefel learned “a second assessment letter was required in order for Medicaid to pay for breast removal surgery.” Her lawsuit said, “Burmeister failed to conduct an individualized, comprehensive mental health assessment prior to recommending that Plaintiff undergo double mastectomy surgery.” 

Ruff and Burmeister, according to an amended lawsuit, did not discuss with Kiefel the risks involved with the proposed surgery, including: 

  • Surgery might not alleviate her social, health and mental health problems, and it might even exacerbate them.
  • Surgery could not mute her feminine features to more closely resemble a ‘non-binary’ gender identity.
  • Reproductive dysfunction, through lack of sexual function, and inability to breastfeed.
  • Reclaiming her female identity after surgery might lead to greater anxiety, distress and shame.

Camille Kiefel’s struggles with trauma and mental health issues are typical of adolescents and young adults who embrace transgender ideology. 

Although many will go on to desist from believing they can become the opposite sex – or someother “gender” altogether, this may only occur after they have been irreparably damaged by transgender medical interventions like drugs, hormones and surgeries. 

True compassion means protecting young men and women and helping them embrace biological reality. 

Legal victories can’t undo the irreversible damage caused by these medical interventions, but they may cause mental health and medical professionals to think twice before engaging in such barbarous practices. 

For those struggling with transgenderism, and their families, Focus on the Family’s Counseling Department offers help from licensed counselors. To request a conversation with Focus on the Family’s Counseling Department, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Mountain Time), or complete our Counseling Consultation Request Form. Please be prepared to leave your contact information for a counselor to return a call to you as soon as possible. The consultation is available at no cost to you due to generous donor support.

Related articles and resources: 

DOJ Targets Those Mutilating Children with ‘Transgender’ Drugs and Surgeries

Expert in ‘Transitioning’ Children Admits ‘We Were Wrong’ About Puberty Blockers

Focus on the Family: Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Focus on the Family: Transgender Resources

Four Brave Young Women File Lawsuits Alleging Harm from ‘Transgender’ Interventions

Jury Awards $2 Million to Young Woman Who Underwent ‘Transgender’ Surgery at 16

More Hospitals Stop Mutilation of Sexually Confused Children

New Video Equips Parents and Counselors to Help ‘Gender Dysphoric’ Children

ReFOCUS with Jim Daly: Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

ReFOCUS with Jim Daly: Chloe Cole: Gender Reassignment Surgery Regret

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does Research Really Show?

Florida Threatens to Sue Miss America for False Advertising Over Definition of ‘Female’

Florida could sue the Miss America organization for false advertising if it continues allowing castrated boys to compete in its pageants, state Attorney General James Uthmeier advised the company in a letter Friday.

“These organizations cannot operate under the false and misleading title of ‘Miss’ if indeed they are open to male participants,” the letter reads, continuing:

By promoting their competitions as female-only and then surreptitiously allowing certain men to compete, Miss America and Miss Florida are engaging in a wrongful bait-and-switch advertising scheme targeting young women.

On their respective websites, Miss America and Miss Florida require participants to be “female.” No additional language or imagery suggests “female” might refer to anything other than biological sex.

So thought Kayleigh Bush when she competed in — and won — the Miss North Florida pageant in late 2024. But when she leafed through her participation contract for the next stage of competition, the Miss Florida pageant, she found the agreement defined “female” to include castrated boys.

The exact language, per Liberty Counsel, reads:

“Female” means a born female or an individual who has fully completed sex reassignment surgery via vaginoplasty (from male to female) with supporting medical documentation and records.

Bush, with Liberty Counsel’s help, tried to negotiate, arguing the contract’s definition of “female” violated her religious belief that sex is binary and immutable.

When Miss America refused to budge, Bush chose to abdicate her privileges as Miss North Florida 2025 and forfeit her right to compete in Miss Florida rather than agree to compete against boys and promote sex rejecting surgeries.

Attorney General Uthmeier believes the Miss America organization deceived Kayleigh and the general public.

“Despite advertising that Miss America and Miss Florida are beauty competitions open only to female competitors, your organizations misled Kayleigh and the public by allowing certain men to compete as well,” he alleged in Friday’s letter, noting false advertising can include “a representation or omission that is likely to deceive a consumer acting reasonably in the same circumstances.”

Bush would not have competed in the pageant had she known she would have to compete against men.

To Uthmeier’s other point, the Miss America organization clearly did not want their participation policies in the spotlight. The company threatened to sue Bush after she alluded to them in a February interview with TMZ.

“It’s disappointing, because Miss America has been honoring women for over a hundred years and, now, they can’t even define what a woman is,” she told the outlet.

Uthmeier gave Miss America until May 1 to publicly specify who can participate in their competitions. If he had his way, boys wouldn’t be allowed to participate at all.

“By misleading Kayleigh and other Florida women, Miss America and Miss Florida undermine the value they claim to advance — female well-being,” the attorney general concludes.

“Both organizations should disallow men from competing in their pageants.”

Additional Articles and Resources

Miss America Allows Castrated Boys to Compete in pageant, Former Contestant Reveals

US Supreme Court Upholds Tennessee Law Protecting Kids From Transgender Mutilation

HHS Finalizes Report Finding Sex-Rejecting Procedures Harm Minors

HHS Releases Report on Harms of ‘Transgender’ Medical Interventions for Minors

Medicalizing Gender Confusion Makes Things Worse, New Research Confirms

New research from Finland further demonstrates that the supposed “settled science” that gender medicine helps youth and young adults live healthier lives is not so settled after all. In fact, the research shows medicalizing gender confusion makes it worse.

It started with the suicide lie. Medical professionals told parents that if they did not wholly support, and pay for(!), their child’s gender transition, they might tragically take their own life. “Would you rather have a living son or a dead daughter?” parents were manipulatively warned by their child’s medical or psychiatric professionals. 

We now know that turned out to be false. The highly reliable Cass Review, conducted in the U.K. and published in 2024, reports, “In summary, the evidence does not adequately support the claim that gender affirming treatment reduces suicide risk” [see 15.43]. The Review also notes, “Tragically deaths by suicide in trans people of all ages continue to be above the national average, but there is no evidence that gender-affirmative treatments reduce this” [see 16.22].

Dr. Kenneth Zucker, a longtime leading expert in the field of youth gender, told Gender Clinic News, “It is now time to bury the ‘trans kid or dead kid’ trope.” He said this based on a 2024 Finnish study – “a very important study,” Zucker noted – which shows that suicide death rates are not alarmingly high for gender confused kids. In fact, they are no higher than rates for peers with any psychiatric treatment history and “medical gender reassignment does not have an impact on suicide risk.”

The four authors of this Finnish study have just published a very large nationally representative study spanning 3-decades which shows severe psychiatric problems are dramatically higher in adolescents and young adults who have sought out medical services for gender identity issues compared with other psychiatric patients of the same age.

This study followed young people 22 years of age and below from 1996 through 2019 who contacted that nation’s Specialized Gender Identity Services and compared them with a similar control group of psychiatric patients. Its findings strongly challenge the claims of trans activists.

The researchers explain that adolescents seeking gender change procedures “showed significantly higher psychiatric morbidity than controls” prior to seeking such services. Specifically, 46% of teens and young adults with gender confusion reported some form of serious psychiatric problem compared with just 15% of the general population that age seeking any psychiatric services.

Yet these rates of serious psychological problems increased significantly after two years undergoing gender medical services, 62% compared to the 46% at the start of the medical interventions.

Another astounding, but not surprising, data fact is that those youth referred after 2010 “had greater psychiatric needs than earlier cohorts, both before (47.9% vs. 15.3%) and ≥ 2 years after (61.3% vs. 14.2%) referral.” This means the trans craze that exploded over the last 10-plus years has had a measurably negative effect.

These scholars add,

Among adolescents who underwent medical gender reassignment, psychiatric morbidity increased markedly during follow-up – rising from 9.8% to 60.7% in feminizing gender reassignment and from 21.6% to 54.5% in masculinizing gender reassignment. After adjusting for prior psychiatric treatment, all gender-referred adolescents had similarly elevated risks of psychiatric morbidity, with hazard ratios approximately three times higher than female controls and five times higher than male controls.

In short, “The need for specialist-level psychiatric treatment increased considerably in follow-up among those who underwent medical GR [gender reassignment].”

These Finnish researchers conclude, “This does not support the suggested improvement in mental health after medical gender reassignment initiated during developmental years.”

It is continued revelations from careful research like this that are leading medical professionals to increasingly back away from their previous support for the trans agenda. The truth will continue to come out as good, honest research comes to press.

Additional Resources:

A Singularly Christian View of the Transgender Problem

Why Christians Can’t Avoid the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue

Yes, Transgenderism is a False Belief System

New Research Shows ‘Transgender’ Identity Dramatically Driven by Immaturity

‘The New York Times’ and 20 State AGs Expose Medical Groups’ Trans Agenda

The APA’s 5 Failed Critiques of HHS Report Discrediting Sex-Rejecting Procedures for Kids

Florida Sues Medical Groups for Promoting ‘Transgender’ Mutilation of Children

What Does it Mean to Be Trans, Anyway?

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

Do Not Fall for the ‘Affirm Them or They Will Die’ Lie

American College of Pediatricians: No Benefits From ‘Gender-Affirming’ Interventions