April 25, 2023

Z. Leah Harris, M.D. Andy Davis, MSHA, MBA Claudia F. Lucchinetti, M.D.
Interim President President & CEO Dean
Dell Children’s Medical Center Ascension Texas Dell Medical School
4900 Mueller Blvd. 1345 Philomena Street 1501 Red River Street
Austin, Texas 78723 Austin, Texas 78723 Austin, Texas 78712

Interim President Harris, President Davis, and Dean Lucchinetti,

Last week, Project Veritas released a video in which Nora Scott, a licensed social worker at Dell Children’s
Medical Center (DCMC), confirmed that your organization “transitions” children as young as eight and
nine years old. Your employee then assured the undercover journalist “there is not a waitlist,” “[i]t is not
something that we want to gatekeep,” and that “young children could begin taking life-changing hormones
as soon as after the first appointment.” 1

We, along with millions of Texans, find it deeply concerning that DCMC is providing experimental,
unproven, and dangerous medical procedures to young children. These young Texans are often victimized
by social media, societal pressures, and crazed gender ideologies into believing that they are either a boy
“trapped” in a girl’s body, or a girl “trapped” in a boy’s body. Additionally, autistic children are
substantially more likely to be victims of gender ideology and are three to six times as likely to believe that
they were born in the wrong body, according to a study. 2 Rather than attempting the impossible and
permanently marring children—either through chemical experimentation or the amputation of perfectly
healthy organs—DCMC should seek to help young Texans by assisting them in accepting the truth about
their bodies.

Good science overwhelmingly opposes these junk procedures intended to do the impossible – change one’s
sex. Studies show that virtually all children eventually grow out of this stage. 3 Numerous European
countries including Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom, once considered world leaders in gender
experimentation, now heavily restrict access to these procedures, only allowing the use of puberty blockers
and cross-sex hormones if strict eligibility requirements are met and if it occurs in a research setting. 4

In accordance with established science, bioethics, and the fundamental principle of “do no harm,” the Texas
Legislature is considering legislation to outright ban the use of these experimental procedures and life-
altering surgeries on young Texans. Further, last year, the Texas Attorney General issued a formal opinion

1
https://twitter.com/Project_Veritas/status/1649105595402682384?s=20
2
https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/largest-study-to-date-confirms-overlap-between-autism-and-gender-diversity/
3
https://www.city-journal.org/article/reason-and-compassion-on-gender-medicine
4
https://www.city-journal.org/article/yes-europe-is-restricting-gender-affirming-care
concluding that certain “sex-change” procedures on children, and prescribing puberty-blockers to them,
constitutes child abuse under existing Texas law.” 5

These experimental procedures fail to deliver on the promises made by gender ideology zealots and are
more dangerous than the problems they seek to solve. While parents are often parroted specious talking
points about how their children will harm themselves if they do not transition, the opposite is true. In fact,
41 percent of those receiving “treatment” attempt suicide, while those who have had transition surgery are
1,900 percent more likely to die by suicide. 6 For context, the rate of suicide attempts among the general
population is just a fraction of that, at 4.6 percent.

The recent rise in high-profile detransitioners such as Chloe Cole, who recently announced a lawsuit against
a national medical group and the doctors who performed the surgeries on her, only underscores the crucial
point that experimental medical and chemical procedures that cause irreversible damage to the patient are
wholly inappropriate for children. 7 We hardly expect Ms. Cole’s suit to be the last.

We request answers to the following questions and requests by May 5, 2023. Please provide a separate
response to each question below, rather than a narrative response.

1. Please provide processes used by DCMC for diagnosing gender dysphoria.

2. Please provide all internal and external correspondence regarding the process DCMC used to
determine why they began offering gender dysphoria treatment.

3. How many federal dollars did DCMC receive in the last fiscal year?

4. How many federal dollars were used in any activity related to gender dysphoria?

5. How many minors has DCMC treated for “gender dysphoria”?

a. What is the age of the youngest patient that DCMC has treated for “gender dysphoria.”

6. How many detransitioners has DCMC treated?

7. Does DCMC allow children under the age of eighteen to consent to experimental medical
procedures? If so, what age may a child consent?

a. Does a child require parental consent in order to receive gender dysphoria treatment?

8. Is DCMC aware of the Texas Attorney General’s formal opinion declaring certain procedures to
be child abuse? If so, how has DCMC responded to the opinion?

9. Has DCMC financially benefited from providing gender dysphoria treatments to minors?

5
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/ag-paxton-declares-so-called-sex-change-procedures-
children-and-prescription-puberty-blockers-be
6
https://www.heritage.org/gender/commentary/transgender-ideology-hurts-kids
7
https://www.foxnews.com/media/detransitioner-chloe-cole-announces-lawsuit-hospitals-pushing-medical-
mutilation

2
 10. What does DCMC estimate the long-term financial benefit of providing gender dysphoria treatment
to be?

11. What process does DCMC have for staff to opt out of providing gender dysphoria treatment for
either conscience or other reasons?

We look forward to timely responses to the above questions and urge you to adopt policies that protect
Texas children from dangerous gender ideologies.

Sincerely,

Ted Cruz Chip Roy

United States Senator Member of Congress