St. Louis transgender center will continue care during investigation, rejecting AG’s request
A St. Louis hospital on Tuesday said it will continue providing gender-affirming care to patients while Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office investigates its transgender center over allegations that it harmed children.
Representatives for the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital sent a letter to Bailey’s office on Tuesday rejecting the attorney general’s request to halt hormone treatments for minors until the investigation is complete.
“The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital is the only place in the entire state of Missouri where transgender youth can access the care they need to ensure their mental and physical well-being,” the letter said. “Therefore, we cannot institute a moratorium that would deny critical, standards-based care to current and new patients.”
However, the letter added that the hospital would establish additional oversight over the center and conduct an internal review.
Bailey, in a letter to officials at the center last week, had urged the hospital to stop providing treatments to new patients until his office completes its investigation.
“I want Missouri to be the safest state in the nation for children, which is why we are calling for an immediate moratorium on the Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital prescribing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to any new patients,” Bailey said in a statement last week.
Last week, Bailey announced that his office, along with the Missouri Department of Social Services and Division of Professional Registration, have for two weeks been investigating the hospital. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, said his office was also launching its own investigation
The investigation followed allegations made public by Jamie Reed, a former employee at the center. Reed alleged that the center excessively provides hormone therapy to mentally ill children without first treating their underlying mental health issues. Reed also claimed that the center misleads the public and parents about the therapy services provided.
Reed told her story in both an affidavit and an article published by the website The Free Press, which was founded by Bari Weiss, a former New York Times reporter who has regularly rallied against progressive-leaning issues. Reed described herself in the article as a progressive queer woman who is married to a transgender man.
Reed is being represented by Georgia-based attorney Vernadette Broyles. Broyles is the founder of the Child and Parental Rights Campaign, a law firm that pushes back against “the harms caused by gender identity ideology,” according to its website.
The firm’s website states that “Children are being led to believe a powerful untruth – that they could be ‘born in the wrong body.’”
Broyles did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Democrats and LGBTQ advocates have questioned the timing of Bailey’s investigation, which was announced less than a week before the Missouri Senate was set to hear three bills that would ban gender-affirming care for minors.
Shira Berkowitz, senior director of policy and advocacy for PROMO Missouri, told Missouri lawmakers on Tuesday that they should not consider Reed’s allegations as fact until the investigation is complete.
“Her one article and affidavit has been taken as more valid than the expertise of every major medical association in the country,” Berkowitz said. “Because this is currently under investigation, not a single point of her allegations have been proven true and should not be taken into consideration as we sit here now debating this bill. While Jamie Reed is one person, she is part of a much larger machine.”
Missouri Republicans have been quick to capitalize on Reed’s allegations.
Hawley filed a bill on Wednesday that would allow people who were harmed by gender-transition procedures as minors to file lawsuits against the hospitals and doctors involved.
“Children who are harmed by these dangerous procedures, which are often irreversible and sterilizing, will now be able to fight back against those who perpetrated their abuse,” Hawley said in a statement.
A group of Republican state lawmakers held a press conference Wednesday to tout bills aimed at prohibiting minors from receiving gender-affirming treatment, one day after the bills were heard in a committee hearing.
Luka Hein, who said she de-transitioned after going through treatment to transition into a transgender man at 16, told reporters at the press conference that it should not be political to let kids grow up before giving them permanent treatments. Hein also testified at the Tuesday hearing.
“Instead of rooting out the cause of why I felt the need to escape my body, medical professionals assisted me in that cause. Instead of leaving me whole and allowing me to grow and feel comfortable, I was medicalized, mutilated and possibly sterilized,” Hein told reporters.
Republican lawmakers all echoed the same sentiment that they want to keep children safe by not allowing them to receive potentially permanent gender-affirming care.
“I think that practice is evil, because I think it’s harming a human and a lot of the children in the state,” Missouri state Sen. Bill Eigel, a Weldon Spring Republican.
Star reporter Jonathan Shorman contributed to this story.
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Weldon Spring.
This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 2:07 PM.
