The Texas Supreme Court last week revived a young woman’s case against medical professionals who put her on the path to have her body irreversibly damaged in the name of transgender healthcare, paving the way for similar lawsuits.
The unanimous ruling allows Soren Aldaco to continue her medical malpractice suit against her former therapist and Three Oaks Counseling. Her suit states that the defendants breached their fiduciary duties and that their medical interventions led to Aldaco’s “permanent disfigurement and profound psychological scarring.” Aldaco is seeking upwards of $1 million in damages.
Aldaco’s win is notable because the court agreed that the statute of limitations was more complex than the transgender medical industry argues. While the statute of limitations would have prevented Aldaco from suing after she was injured, the court agreed that lawsuits can continue in cases where a minor is put on a path to medical transition.
Aldaco, an activist who suffered greatly from a medical gender procedure, is no longer “timed out” of suing those who harmed her. The ruling could set a precedent for other detransitioners and puts the transgender medical industry on notice.
Independent Women’s Forum said the ruling “establishes a renewed lens for determining when the statute of limitations begins in cases involving minors who later allege harm from medical providers who facilitated irreversible ‘gender-transition’ interventions.”
“Today the Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that my case deserves to be heard, and that providers implicated in harming vulnerable patients can’t twist the statute of limitations to escape accountability,” Aldaco said in a statement issued Monday. “This ruling is a watershed moment.”
“The Court’s opinion is already sending shockwaves far beyond Texas,” she added. “The direct impact will be felt here at home — but providers across the country, and federally, will now think twice about their responsibility to patients. And patients will see, through the model established here in Texas, that they deserve to be protected and taken seriously.”
Aldaco began identifying as transgender around 11 and was started on hormone replacement therapy at age 17, as outlined by Kelsey Bolar, a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Forum. At 19, Aldaco underwent surgery to remove her healthy breasts and, just two weeks later, ended up alone in an emergency room for eight hours as doctors reopened her wounds from the double mastectomy.
“At the time, I thought I was going to die,” Aldaco told Independent Women’s Forum. “I just remember being on zero pain meds at the time.”
“Her traumatic medical complications opened her eyes to the ills of so-called ‘gender-affirming care,’ which she said enabled her to believe hormones and surgery could provide her with the sense of self she craved growing up,” Bolar said of Aldaco. “Detransitioned and now working to heal from her ordeal through mindfulness, Soren has become a vocal critic of the ‘enabling’ she sees happening within the gender medical industry.”
The ruling comes on the heels of another high-profile victory for a detransitioner. Fox Varian received $2 million following a verdict in New York in January. Her case centered around the removal of her healthy breasts at age 16 for reasons of supposed transgender care.
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