Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed Tuesday he stopped an El Paso pediatrician from illegally providing gender-transition drugs – an allegation the doctor denies.
The judge presiding over the 422nd Judicial District Court of Kaufman County signed an agreed temporary injunction Jan. 9 that prevents Dr. Hector Granados from prescribing puberty blockers or hormones to minors for gender transition.
An agreed temporary injunction means both parties in the lawsuit – Granados and the state – agreed to the terms. The injunction does not stop Granados or his nurse practitioners from practicing medicine. His clinics remain open.
“All the agreed temporary injunction says is that he has to follow the law, which he is already doing,” said Mark Bracken, the attorney representing Granados, in an email to El Paso Matters.
Granados, a pediatric endocrinologist in El Paso, is one of three Texas doctors the Attorney General’s Office sued last year for allegedly violating state law, which bans health care workers from providing transition-related medical treatments to trans minors.
The other pediatricians, Dr. May Lau and Dr. M. Brett Cooper, work at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. They entered Rule 11 agreements to stop practicing medicine on patients, restricting their practice to “research, administrative, and academic settings.” UT Southwestern didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from El Paso Matters.
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‘I follow the law:’ El Paso doctor responds to Texas AG lawsuit over alleged transgender care
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued El Paso pediatrician Dr. Hector Granados. We hear from the doctor for the first time.
Granados denied Paxton’s allegations in an interview last month with El Paso Matters, saying he stopped providing transgender medical treatment in 2023 in anticipation of Texas SB 14 going into effect.
He is one of only two pediatric endocrinologists in El Paso and treats a wide range of hormonal conditions, including diabetes, thyroid disorders and growth deficiencies. Though Granados practices at his private clinics in El Paso as well as at El Paso Children’s Hospital, the AG’s Office filed its lawsuit 650 miles away in Kaufman County near Dallas.
According to the lawsuit, Granados allegedly prescribed puberty blockers and hormones to 21 patients ages 12-17, including one patient in Kaufman County.
“We entered into an agreed protective order and an agreed temporary injunction because Dr. Granados has nothing to hide and wants to show the AG’s office that he followed the law and did not do what they are alleging he did,” Bracken said in an email.
Under the protective order, the state can identify the alleged patients with provisions to protect their personal information from the public. The Attorney General’s Office identified the names of 13 of the 21 patients and provided the dates of birth for the other eight patients, Bracken said.
In a response filed Nov. 25, Bracken also filed a motion to move the case to El Paso.
The hearing on the motion to transfer venue is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, in Kaufman County.
The post El Paso doctor sued by Texas AG agrees to court order he says he was already following appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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