Healthcare

‘Disturbing Allegations’: Missouri AG Investigating Child Gender Clinic Following Whistleblower Report

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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced a multiagency investigation into the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital Thursday following a former employee’s allegations that doctors there were prescribing irreversible, experimental cross-sex drugs on children with inadequate psychiatric evaluation.

Jamie Reed, a former case manager at the clinic, told Bailey’s office that clinic doctors rushed children into irreversible cross-sex procedures with minimal psychiatric evaluations and in some cases disregarded the wishes of parents in a sworn affidavit. Bailey began an investigation into Reed’s allegations in January after her initial comments and made details of the investigation public following Reed’s Thursday article in The Free Press, which detailed the clinic’s alleged wrongdoings. 

“As Attorney General, I want Missouri to be the safest state in the nation for children,” Bailey said, according to the release. “We have received disturbing allegations that individuals at the Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital have been harming hundreds of children each year, including by using experimental drugs on them. We take this evidence seriously and are thoroughly investigating to make sure children are not harmed by individuals who may be more concerned with a radical social agenda than the health of children.”

This is a sickening account of forced sterilization and child abuse. Happening in Missouri at an institution that receives federal taxpayer funds. Today my office is launching an investigation. Missouri children deserve to be protected https://t.co/oDvPaRC1qs

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) February 9, 2023

The drugs doctors prescribe young people at the clinic have serious and sometimes irreversible consequences including infertility, vaginal lacerations, liver toxicity and painful enlargement of the clitoris, but parents and patients weren’t always adequately informed of these risks, according to Reed.

The clinic’s doctors were dismissive of parents’ rights and believed they were better equipped than parents when it came to making children’s medical choices, according to Reed. Missouri only requires consent from one parent for the medical procedures, and the clinic would side with the parent who favored medical transition when parents disagreed over the best course of action for their child.

The state’s Division of Professional Registration is looking into the allegations and pledged to take “any necessary action” against the professional licenses of those involved in order to ensure the safety of Missouri residents, according to the press release. The Department of Social Services will investigate potential fraud, waste, or abuse related to the report.

“The Department of Social Services takes its role to investigate concerns of potential fraud, waste, or abuse in Missouri’s Medicaid program seriously,” Robert Knodell, acting director of the state’s Department of Social Services, said in the press release. “We will investigate concerns raised in order to ensure the health and safety of our Medicaid participants and to protect the integrity of the Medicaid program.”

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley pledged to investigate the clinic for possible malpractice Thursday morning after the report broke.

The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.