COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) 鈥 Missouri鈥檚 Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey on Friday called for doctors to pause giving puberty blockers and hormones to new patients at a transgender youth clinic. The call comes a day after he announced an investigation into claims that the facility rushed to give children gender-affirming care without informed consent.
Bailey publicly announced an investigation of Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children鈥檚 Hospital on Thursday after he said a whistleblower went public with allegations against the clinic.
The state Social Services Department, state licensing agency, Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and also are investigating.
Former case manager Jamie Reed claimed claimed that the center mainly provides gender-affirming care and does little to address mental health issues that patients also faced.
Reed worked at the clinic from 2018 through November 2022. In a post published Thursday by The Free Press, Reed described herself as a 42-year-old queer woman who is 鈥減olitically to the left of Bernie Sanders.鈥 She said she's married to a transgender man.
In her affidavit, Reed claimed one minor treated at the center received a mastectomy and months later wanted the procedure to be undone. She said one doctor prescribed a medication to enlarge breasts that also caused liver damage.
Reed said she saw "healthcare providers lie to the public and to parents of patients about the treatment, or lack of treatment, and the effects of treatment provided to children."
鈥淚 witnessed staff at the center provide puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children without complete informed parental consent and without an appropriate or accurate assessment of the needs of the child," Reed wrote. "I witnessed children experience shocking injuries from the medication the center prescribed.鈥
Missouri Division of Professional Registration Director Sheila Solon said in a statement that licensing boards will 鈥渢ake any necessary action against the licenses of Missouri professionals in violation of the boards鈥 statutory and regulatory authority to ensure health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Missouri.鈥 Solon previously served as a Republican state representative.
Reed also claimed that physicians often referred patients to on-site therapists who would recommend gender-affirming treatments to children after spending one or two hours with them. She said doctors would 鈥渂ully鈥 parents into giving permission for treatment by saying, 鈥淵ou can either have a living son or a dead daughter.鈥
Studies have found some children and teens resort to self-mutilation to try to change their anatomy. And research has shown that transgender youth and adults are prone to stress, depression and suicidal behavior when forced to live as the sex they were assigned at birth.
Reed also alleged that the center billed some treatments to the federal Medicaid health care program.
鈥淚 took the job because I support trans rights and firmly believed I would be able to provide good care for children at the Center who are appropriate candidates to be receiving medical transition,鈥 Reed wrote in the affidavit. 鈥淚nstead, I witnessed the Center cause permanent harm to many of the patients.鈥
Missouri LGBTQ advocacy group PROMO spokesman Robert Fischer in a statement said the organization has heard 鈥渄ozens upon dozens of positive personal stories from transgender and gender non-conforming youth and families about the ethic of care they鈥檝e received鈥 at the center.
鈥淲e鈥檝e also sat in rooms with over 30 parents who have shared stories about how their children thrived when they received interdisciplinary, holistic care from a team of providers at the Center,鈥 Fischer said. 鈥淲e have no insight into these allegations and accusations from one person.鈥
is increasingly under attack in many states, labeled child abuse and subject to criminalizing bans. But it has been available in the United States for more than a decade and is endorsed by major medical associations.
Many clinics use treatment plans pioneered in Amsterdam 30 years ago, according to a recent review in the British Psych Bulletin. Since 2005, the number of youth referred to gender clinics has increased as much as tenfold in the U.S., U.K, Canada and Finland, the review said.
Several Missouri lawmakers this year , and Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden said that's .
Bailey in a statement called the allegations against the center 鈥渄isturbing.鈥
鈥淲e 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,鈥 Bailey said.
Bailey has been outspoken on social issues since he . Republican Gov. Mike Parson appointed Bailey, the former top lawyer for the Governor's Office, to replace now-U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt as the state attorney general.
During his roughly one month in office so far, Bailey has called on school boards to adopt policies against children attending drag shows and
Bailey last month in 2024.
