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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated the ousting of a Texas doctor who he claims provided “dangerous gender transition drugs” on Friday, but the story isn’t nearly that simple.
Dr. May Lau was a physician with Dallas’ University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center who was sued by Paxton last October for prescribing the hormone testosterone to at least 21 teen patients between the ages of 14 and 17. Lau’s biography noted her experience in treating “gender dysphoria,” but the attorney general accused Lau of being a “radical gender activist.”
Paxton said in a news release last week that Lau’s surrendering her medical license marks “a major victory for our state.”
The Texas Medical Board said Lau’s license was canceled by her request earlier this month, but her attorneys say the request was not an admission of guilt, much less a signal of political victory.
“Dr. Lau decided to move her medical practice to Oregon and saw no reason to continue to maintain her Texas license,” her attorney, Craig Smyser, told the Texas Tribune. “Dr. Lau continues to deny the Texas Attorney General’s politically- and ideologically-driven allegations.”
Lau’s attorneys are arguing that Paxton’s decision to file the lawsuit with a Collin County district court makes the filing “legally invalid” and leaves the court with “no jurisdiction over her” because “Dr. Lau did not practice medicine” in the county. Paxton’s primary residence is in Collin County.
Paxton’s lawsuit requested $1 million from Lau, and the attorney general filed lawsuits against two other doctors under Senate Bill 14, the 2023 law that prohibits doctors from providing gender-affirming care to minors. One of those suits has since been dropped, and the other, filed against Dallas doctor Brett Cooper, remains in litigation. Cooper’s attorneys have accused Paxton of unfairly “politicizing” the lawsuit ahead of a May 2026 jury trial.
Lau’s decision to leave the Lone Star State mirrors a trend being recorded across the OB-GYN profession. Studies have found that those practitioners are choosing to leave the state because of attacks on reproductive healthcare, and by 2030, the state is expected to have 15% fewer OB-GYNs than needed to handle demand.
“I would not blame any doctor who relocates out of the state of Texas, given how hostile the climate is right now towards health care providers who are providing life-saving healthcare, to trans people in particular,” said Brad Pritchett, interim CEO of Equality Texas. “We live in a place right now where the folks who have the power in our government are attempting to use that power to weaponize the full force of the government against healthcare that they just don’t like.”
In a statement, Paxton said his office would “not relent in holding anyone who tries to transition kids” using “experimental drugs” accountable.
Pritchett said the SB 14 lawsuits are consistent with Paxton’s “long and well-documented habit” of “making the lives of transgender Texans harder.” He is concerned about the chilling effect that continued attacks on medical providers will bring; according to Politico, doctors who treat transgender teens are regularly the subjects of death threats and doxxing.
Furthermore, lawsuits like the one filed against Lau could raise red flags for privacy concerns. The 35-page filing refers to specific patients’ treatment plans and prescriptions, something that Pritchett believes anyone should be concerned by, regardless of their politics.
“The Attorney General is not a doctor, but he is trying to weaponize people’s private health care information,” Pritchett said. “We have healthcare experts who study in their fields for years and are well aware of what is legal and what is not legal. And they’re not trying to score political points, they’re just trying to save lives. Whereas the Attorney General, he’s only interested in scoring political points.”
