Paxton’s claims that the companies engaged in deceptive marketing practices are part of his ongoing effort to limit access to gender-affirming health care for transgender teens.
BY ELEANOR KLIBANOFF MARCH 24, 2022
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating two pharmaceutical companies — Endo Pharmaceuticals and AbbVie Inc. — for allegedly advertising puberty blockers to children and their parents to treat gender dysphoria rather than the other medical conditions they are approved to treat.
Paxton opened the investigation in December and filed civil investigative demands with the two companies on Thursday.
This is the latest move in an ongoing effort by Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott to limit access to gender-affirming medical care for transgender teens in Texas.
Gender-affirming care is a treatment model to address gender dysphoria, the distress a person feels when their gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Young people often focus on social transition — dressing a certain way or using different pronouns — but can be prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy in consultation with a doctor.
Last month, Paxton issued a nonbinding legal opinion that equated gender-affirming medical care, including fully reversible puberty blockers, with child abuse. Abbott then directed the state’s child welfare agency to investigate parents who provide these medical interventions to their children.
At least nine families are under investigation. A state court temporarily suspendedthe investigations, a decision that was upheld earlier this week by an appeals court. Paxton has asked the Texas Supreme Court to overturn that injunction and allow the investigations to continue.
In December, Paxton announced investigations under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act into Endo Pharmaceuticals and AbbVie Inc., the two companies that sell puberty blockers. He claimed in a press release that the drugs are approved to treat precocious puberty and forms of prostate cancer but were being marketed and prescribed off-label to treat gender dysphoria.
SOURCE : https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/06/texas-lawsuit-lgbt-workers/
