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Clinic that pressured parents into sex change care for their trans kids shutters in 'huge win' for child safety
A Missouri clinic that pressured parents into letting their kids undergo risky sex change procedures has shuttered in what officials hail as a 'huge win' for child safety in the state.
The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital shuttered last week, following an outcry over claims that doctors there pushed puberty blockers and other procedures on minors.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey on Tuesday said the clinic had 'mutilated' too many kids and that its closure was a 'major step' toward halting controversial sex change procedures.
'I want Missouri to be the safest state in the nation for children,' said the dad-of-four.
'The closure of any clinic that has mutilated children is a major step towards that goal. I will not stop until the clandestine network of clinics mutilating children is permanently dismantled, and bad actors are held accountable.'
The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital reportedly shuttered last week
Parents were pushed into letting children undergo breast-removal operations. Pictured: the scars after such a procedure
The clinic did not answer DailyMail.com's request for comment.
Sex change procedures on trans minors are a frontline in America's culture wars. Advocates say it is essential and saves lives among a vulnerable group, critics say kids are too young to make life-altering decisions about their health.
The youth gender clinic came under fire last February, when Jamie Reed, a former case manager, released explosive whistleblower allegations about care teams had hastily prescribed hormones with lasting effects to teens with psychiatric problems.
Doctors there routinely prescribed irreversible gender-swapping drugs to youths as young as 12 after seeing them just twice, claimed Reed, who is gay and herself married to a trans person.
When parents objected to rushing kids onto puberty blockers, they were told that not doing so would leave the youngster suicidal, and were asked: 'Do you want a dead daughter or an alive son?' Reed claimed.
In explosive testimony, Reed later spoke of a girl-to-boy patient at the clinic who regretted a chest operation and 'was begging to have their breasts put back on after having surgery.'
The clinic said it had stopped prescribing hormone drugs to children in September, after a state law banned the practice.
Transgender care for adults at the same center has not been stopped, Reed says.
It's unclear how many children still use the center for mental health and other services.
Jamie Reed, a case manager at the youth sex-change clinic, blew the whistle on how carers pushed puberty blockers and hormones onto young patients
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said the clinic had 'mutilated' too many young people
Most children who get treated with puberty blockers go on to cross-sex hormones, like this patient at Blue Mountain Clinic in Montana
The pediatric center website remains active, and says that it still helps with transition plans and referrals to other specialists.
Some young patients had already moved to other carers to get hormones or puberty blockers, including a growing number of providers who mail drugs to minors in Red states that outlaw gender-affirming care.
Advocates of such care say it's life-saving for a suicide-prone group, and that puberty blockers help pre-teens 'pause' their puberty and buy time to weigh life-altering decisions.
Critics warn of surging numbers of young people who identify as trans, and say puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries are often unnecessary and likely dangerous when counselling gets better results.
Republican lawmakers have outlawed puberty blockers and other types of trans care for minors in nearly two dozen states.
Norway, Finland, Sweden, Holland, and the UK are among a growing list of European countries to have restricted or wholesale stopped trans interventions on children.