Order extends 14-day mandate of TRO until after trial next year
DALLAS – A judge in Dallas County has signed an order extending the time period when doctors at Dallas’ Children’s Medical Center can provide gender-affirming care – including puberty blockers and hormone therapy – for transgender youth.
The court previously issued a temporary restraining order allowing doctors to provide such care for a 14-day period that had been set to expire May 26. But the two sides in the underlying legal case – GENECIS Clinic founder Dr. Ximena Lopez and Children’s Medical Center – agreed to extend the time period through trial, when Dr. Lopez will ask the court to make the injunction permanent.
“What this means is that Dr. Lopez and her colleagues can treat new and existing patients as they see fit, free from any interference from outside sources, for at least as long as this case works its way through the system,” says Charla Aldous of Aldous\Walker in Dallas, who along with named partner Brent Walker is representing Dr. Lopez free of charge. “And it means the families of these kids can take a breath and not have to worry about care disappearing later this week. It’s the best possible outcome to this ill-conceived and politically driven policy.”
Attorney Stephen Malouf of Dallas’ Malouf & Nockels also is representing Dr. Lopez free of charge.
The attorneys went to court earlier this month and secured a temporary restraining order reversing the shutdown of portions of the gender-affirming care that Children’s and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center were providing at the GENECIS clinic. Since that time, doctors there have been able to provide counseling and other help to transgender youth, but not puberty blockers or hormone therapy.
Dr. Lopez and her attorneys argue that excluding transgender youth from such treatments amounts to discrimination and that – given high rates of depression and suicide in the trans population – the policy puts lives at risk.
The case is Ximena Lopez, M.D., v. Children’s Medical Center at Dallas, Cause No. CC-22-02427-B in the County Court at Law No. 2 in Dallas County, Texas.
The Aldous\Walker LLP law firm represents clients in civil litigation and specializes in high-profile, high-stakes cases. Learn more about the firm at http://www.aldouslaw.com.
Contact:
Mark Annick
800-559-4534