A Texas pediatrician has surrendered her medical license as she faces a lawsuit for illegally prescribing gender transition drugs to children, the state’s attorney general announced Friday.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office would nevertheless continue the case he filed last year against Dr. May Lau for violating a state law against “transitioning” minors by prescribing hormones to alter their biological sex.
“Doctors who permanently hurt kids by giving them experimental drugs are nothing more than disturbed left-wing activists who have no business being in the medical field,” Mr. Paxton said in a statement. “May Lau has done untold damage to children, both physically and psychologically, and the surrendering of her Texas medical license is a major victory for our state.”
The attorney general’s office said the forfeiture of her license “permanently bars” Dr. Lau from providing transgender treatments in the state.
The Washington Times was unable to reach Dr. Lau for comment.
Officials at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, where she worked as an adolescent medicine specialist before the lawsuit, said they were “unable to comment” on pending litigation.
“Our top priority is the health and well-being of our patients,” a Children’s Health spokesperson said.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where Dr. Lau taught as a professor, also did not reply to a request for comment.
The Texas Medical Board, which oversees licensing, said Dr. Lau voluntarily withdrew from practicing medicine in the state.
“At this time, the Board can only confirm that Dr. Lau’s license was canceled by request,” Spencer Miller-Payne, a medical board spokesman, said in an email.
The case is part of a growing national debate over whether children have the right to alter their gender through medicine or surgeries.
The American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics have endorsed “gender affirming care” as a treatment for children and teens who dispute their birth sex.
But 27 states have banned or restricted transgender surgeries and medicines for minors as a form of child abuse. They include Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Ohio, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee.
Texas enacted its ban on gender transition surgeries, puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors in September 2023. The state Supreme Court upheld it in June 2024.
State law also directs the Texas Medical Board to “revoke the medical license or other authorization to practice medicine of a physician who violates” the prohibition.
Mr. Paxton filed separate lawsuits accusing Dr. Lau, Dr. Hector Granados of El Paso, and Dr. M. Brent Cooper of Dallas of violating the ban in October and November 2024.
His three complaints sought to revoke their medical licenses and recover millions of dollars in “monetary relief” for legal fees and other costs.
The 35-page complaint against Dr. Lau accuses her of prescribing testosterone to 21 patients after the Texas ban took effect on Sept. 1, 2023.
It also accuses her of deceiving pharmacies, insurance providers and two patients “by falsifying medical records, prescriptions and billing records to” disguise the reasons for puberty blocker treatments.
“Lau is a Radical Gender Activist,” the lawsuit states.
In February 2025, the attorney general’s office announced an agreement with Dr. Lau and Dr. Cooper to end their medical practices as the lawsuits unfolded.
Last month, the attorney general dropped the suit against Dr. Granados, announcing in a statement that “no legal violations were found” in a review of his medical records.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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