Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley pledged to launch an investigation into the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital following an explosive whistleblower report about the clinic’s treatment of children.
Jamie Reed, a former case manager at the clinic, said doctors rushed children into irreversible sex change procedures which can cause infertility and a host of other side effects, often against the wishes of parents, in a Thursday article in The Free Press. Hawley quickly announced that his office would launch an investigation into the clinic over potential malpractice involving minors, according to a press release.
“This is a sickening account of forced sterilization and child abuse,” Hawley wrote. “Happening in Missouri at an institution that receives federal taxpayer funds. Today my office is launching an investigation. Missouri children deserve to be protected.”
The clinic’s doctors disregarded parental rights and viewed themselves as better-informed decision makers when it came to 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.
In one instance, a clinic doctor testified in favor of medical transition for an 11-year-old girl during a custody battle in which the girl’s mother sought the transition against the father’s wishes, according to Reed. The mother called her daughter a “tomboy” and initially said she didn’t express discomfort with her body or go by a boy’s name, then reversed her story a month later after the clinic told her the child didn’t qualify for an evaluation; the clinic then took her on as a patient and put her on puberty blockers, according to Reed.
Reed worried that patients and parents were not adequately warned of the side effects of medications prescribed during gender transitions; multiple patients experienced vaginal laceration while on testosterone because the drug thins the vaginal tissue, including one patient whose vagina was torn through during intercourse, Reed wrote. Other side effects include infertility, painfully enlarged clitoris and liver toxicity.
Hawley’s office did not immediately offer further details on the investigation.
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