Clinic that pressured parents to seek treatment for their transgender children closes in ‘huge victory’ for child safety
A Missouri clinic that pressured parents to have their children undergo risky gender reassignment surgery has closed, in what officials are calling a “huge victory” for child safety in the state.
The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital closed its doors last week after outrage over claims that doctors there were prescribing puberty blockers and other procedures to minors.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said Tuesday that the clinic had “mutilated” too many children and that its closure was an “important step” toward ending controversial gender reassignment procedures.
“I want Missouri to be the safest state in the country for children,” the father of four said.
“Closing every clinic that has mutilated children is an important step toward that goal. I will not stop until the secret network of child mutilation clinics is permanently dismantled and bad actors are held accountable.”
The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital reportedly closed last week
Parents were forced to have their children undergo mastectomy surgery. Pictured: the scars after such a procedure
The clinic did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
Sex reassignment procedures for transgender minors are a front line in America’s culture wars. Supporters say they are essential and life-saving among a vulnerable group, critics say children are too young to make life-changing decisions about their health.
The youth gender clinic came under fire in February last year when Jamie Reed, a former case manager, came forward with explosive whistleblower allegations that care teams had rushed to prescribe hormones to teenagers with mental health problems, with lasting consequences.
According to Reed, who is gay and married to a transgender person, doctors there routinely prescribed drugs that irreversibly change the sex of young people as young as 12 after only seeing the drugs twice.
When parents objected to the hasty prescribing of puberty blockers to their children, they were told that not prescribing them would lead to suicide. So they were asked, “Do you want a dead daughter or a living son?” Reed claimed.
In explosive testimony, Reed later told of a patient who had given birth to a girl and turned out to be a boy, who regretted breast surgery and “begged to have her breasts put back in after she had the surgery.”
The clinic said it stopped prescribing hormone medications to children in September after a state law banned the practice.
Care for transgender people at the same center has still not been stopped, Reed says.
It is unclear how many children still use the center for mental health and other services.
Jamie Reed, a case manager at the Adolescent Gender Reassignment Clinic, spoke out against the way caregivers were pushing puberty blockers and hormones on young patients
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said the clinic had “maimed” too many young people
Most children treated with puberty blockers switch to cross-sex hormones, like this patient at the Blue Mountain Clinic in Montana
The childcare center’s website is still active and indicates that it continues to assist with transition plans and referrals to other specialists.
Some young patients had already moved to other providers to get hormones or puberty blockers. That includes a growing number of providers who are sending drugs to minors in Republican states where gender-affirming care is banned.
Proponents of this care say it is life-saving for a group of people who are prone to suicide. In addition, puberty blockers are said to help preteens “pause” their puberty, giving them time to make life-changing decisions.
Critics warn about the increasing number of young people who identify as transgender. Puberty blockers, hormones for transsexuals and surgeries are often unnecessary and even dangerous, while therapy produces better results.
Republican lawmakers have banned puberty blockers and other forms of transgender care for minors in nearly two dozen states.
Norway, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are among the growing list of European countries that have limited or completely stopped trans interventions for children.