TEXAS — Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has again moved to limit transgender youth’s access to gender-affirming procedures. On Thursday, he announced an investigation into two companies that produce puberty blockers.

What You Need To Know

  • Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued has issued Civil Investigative Demands as part of an investigation into two pharmaceutical companies that produce hormone-blocking drugs

  • Paxton claims the drugs are approved for certain conditions but have been marketed as gender-affirming drugs

  • The investigation is part of Paxton’s efforts to limit transgender youth’s access to gender-affirming procedures

  • The American Medical Association supports gender-affirming hormone therapy for transgender and non-binary people

Paxton says the companies, AbbVie Inc. and Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., may have advertised their drugs in violation of state law. Paxton says the drugs, Supprelin LA and Lupron Depot, are approved to treat Central Precocious Puberty, a condition in which puberty occurs prematurely in children, and that some versions of Lupron are approved to treat prostate cancer.

However, Paxton said, the Food and Drug Administration has not approved the drugs to treat gender dysphoria and the companies may have marketed them that way.

“Companies should never promote or supply puberty blockers for uses that are not intended or approved,” Paxton wrote in a news release announcing the investigation. “I will not allow Big Pharma to misleadingly promote these drugs that may pose a high risk of serious physical and psychological damage to Texas children who cannot yet fathom or consent to the potential long-term effects of such use.”  

Related Stories

While the FDA has not approved those drugs for children considering a gender transition, doctors have prescribed them for that purpose.

The American Medical Association supports prescription of puberty blockers for transgender children, in an April 2021 letter to governors writing, “Empirical evidence has demonstrated that trans and non-binary gender identities are normal variations of human identity and expression. For gender diverse individuals, standards of care and accepted medically necessary services that affirm gender or treat gender dysphoria may include mental health counseling, non-medical social transition, gender-affirming hormone therapy, and/or gender-affirming surgeries.”

Paxton’s Civil Investigative Demands follow an internal investigation into the companies announced in December 2021 as well as a recent non-binding opinion in which Paxton stated that under state law, some gender-affirming procedures for youth constitute child abuse.

That prompted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to issue a directive mandating the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services investigate parents of transgender children who allow them to undergo such procedures.

Enforcement of that directive has been halted by a Texas judge. A trial is expected later this year.