“This is a major cultural issue of our time,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) told Breitbart News as he begins an investigation into a St. Louis gender clinic.
Appearing on Breitbart News Saturday, Bailey said his office’s investigation into Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital will be comprehensive.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck approach; we’re not going to leave any stone unturned because the allegations are significant,” Bailey said, referring to an affidavit from whistleblower Jamie Reed who previously worked at the clinic. “We began an investigation, we’ve marshaled state resources, and we’re now leading a multi-agency investigation.”
“This is a whistleblower, who self-describes as a progressive, married to a transgender man, who asked to be a caseworker at a transgender pediatric clinic because the individual believes in and supports transgender rights,” Bailey explained.
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“The allegation she details in her testimony in the affidavit are that many of the kids that came into the clinic would tell clinicians that they learned about what gender they were on TikTok,” the Show Me State Republican said. “Think about that for a second. They’re not experiencing the objective reality of their bodies; they’re learning from TikTok what their gender is, so they come in with a mental health problem.”
“Instead of treating it like a mental health problem — treating gender dysphoria as a mental health problem — the allegation is that the doctors at the clinic were quick to prescribe puberty blockers, and ultimately cross-sex hormones, and then make surgical referrals,” he continued. “So we’re quick to prescribe medicine and surgery, irreversible surgery, irreversible medication that causes long-term harm and deleterious health consequences instead of talking to the patients.”
“What the whistleblower testified to was that instead of using psychology and psychiatry as a first resort, access to those mental health treatments were limited in favor of drugs and surgery,” Bailey said. “This is dangerous, scary stuff because … they’re not tracking the clinical assessment of adverse consequences, so they don’t know the bad things that are happening or not tracking those. It’s almost like an ostrich with its head in the sand.”
As Breitbart News reported, Reed claimed the clinic’s practices were “morally and medically appalling,” adding further that she was “Struck by the lack of formal protocols for treatment” and detailed how only very little evidence is required to start children down the irreversible path of “gender transition.”
“We know that puberty blockers have reduced bone density, they cause early menopause, and they worsen mental health,” Bailey said. “So, it’s like you get addicted to this drug, you get addicted to these treatments, and you can’t ever break free. So it has lifelong consequences.”
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey speaks to reporters after taking the oath of office in Jefferson City, MO, on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb)
“We’ve seen other nations across the world are banned in these dangerous treatments,” he continued, pointing to European countries that have either slowed or banned the “affirmation” model of child gender dysphoria entirely. “The United Kingdom and Finland within the past few years have said, ‘let’s stop prescribing medications and doing surgeries.’ … Even France and Sweden have gotten on board and changed their standard of care to abandon surgery and medication in favor of psychology and psychiatry.”
Bailey explained there are multiple avenues for holding the clinic accountable, should the allegations end up being true.
He told Breitbart News that there is the potential for consumer protection issues, professional licensure violations, Medicaid fraud, crimes, and parental consent problems.
For example, “if the allegation is that there was no real parental consent — or inadequate parental consent — because the parents were told things like, ‘you can have a live son or a dead daughter,’ and weren’t given access to information about the long-term health consequences of some of these medications and surgical procedures,” he said.
Of the potential criminal conduct, Bailey said, “At some point, the allegations that are described by the whistleblower — these are child abuse. This isn’t medicine, this is child abuse in the name of a radical social agenda.”
The same gender clinic made headlines for a separate incident involving the advice given to a teacher to “affirm” the stated genders of an entire group of fifth-grade girls.
“My heart breaks for these kids that are being lured into this trap of this social agenda,” Bailey said of the school issue. “What’s really striking, school officials in the state of Missouri are mandatory reporters required to report child abuse.”
“Now, you got an allegation that the people at the clinic were coordinating and trying to use the school as a pipeline to induce young children into the clinic,” he continued.
Going back to the allegations made by the whistleblower, Bailey explained, “the clinic didn’t provide ongoing mental health treatment.”
“So, you get them hooked on the drugs, you prescribe drugs, and then what she also testified that in 100 percent of the cases where puberty blockers are administered to younger children, the youngest children, then that, ultimately, in 100 percent of the cases, that lead to the prescription of an administration of cross-sex hormones,” he continued. “The allegations are, they’re luring kids in and then, if they go to puberty blockers, they automatically will go to cross-sex hormones without any ongoing mental health training. Why aren’t they talking to the kids first?”
“First and foremost, this is about protecting children,” he said.
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.
