A transgender center in Missouri has been accused of “harming hundreds of children,” the state’s attorney general revealed while announcing his office is launching a full investigation into the matter.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced Thursday that he has launched a multi-agency investigation into the Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
The move comes after a whistleblower alleged that the facility’s practices are seriously harming children.
AG Bailey said that his office launched the probe into the “shocking allegations” from whistleblower Jamie Reed.
Reed is a self-described “queer” leftist woman who worked as a case manager at the facility.
The attorney general’s office said that they received a sworn affidavit from the whistleblower and documents that support her claims.
“As Attorney General, I want Missouri to be the safest state in the nation for children,” Bailey said in a statement.
“We have received disturbing allegations that individuals at the Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital have been harming hundreds of children each year, including by using experimental drugs on them.
“We 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.”
Reed said that she left the clinic last November after witnessing the abuse that children were suffering.
She said she could “no longer participate in what was happening there.”
Some of the most explosive claims included in Reed’s affidavit include:
- “On several occasions, the doctors have continued prescribing medical transition even when a parent stated that they were revoking consent.”
- “The Center does not require children to continue with mental health care after they prescribe cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers and even continues those medications when the patients directly report worsening mental health after initiating those medications “
- “I have seen puberty blockers worsen the mental health outcomes of children. Children who have not contemplated suicide before being put on puberty blockers have attempted suicide after.”
- “It is my belief that the Center does not track these outcomes because they do not want to have to report them to new patients and because they do not want to discontinue cross-sex hormone prescriptions. The Center never discontinues cross-sex hormones, no matter the outcome.”
- “During my time at the Center, I personally witnessed Center 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 at the Center.”
- “Doctors at the Center also have publicly claimed that they do not do any gender transition surgeries on minors. … This was a lie. The Center regularly refers minors for gender transition surgery. The Center routinely gives out the names and contact information of surgeons to those under the age of 18. At least one gender transition surgery was performed by Dr. Allison Snyder-Warwick at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in the last few years.”
- “The Center tells the public and parents of patients that the point of puberty blockers is to give children time to figure out their gender identity. But the Center does not use puberty blockers for this purpose. Instead, the Center uses puberty blockers just until children are old enough to be put on cross-sex hormones. Doctors at the Center always prescribe cross-sex hormones for children who have been taking puberty blockers.”
- “The Center tells the public and parents that it makes individualized decisions. That is not true. Doctors at the Center believe that every child who meets four basic criteria—age or puberty stage, therapist letter, parental consent, and a one-hour visit with a doctor—is a good candidate for irreversible medical intervention. When a child meets these four simple criteria, the doctors always decide to move forward with puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. There were no objective medical test or criteria or individualized assessments.”
- “One doctor at the Center, Dr. Chris Lewis, is giving patients a drug called Bicalutamide. The drug has a legitimate use for treating pancreatic cancer, but it has a side effect of causing breasts to grow, and it can poison the liver. There are no clinical studies for using this drug for gender transitions, and there are no established standards of care for using this drug.”
- “I know of at least one patient at the Center who was advised by the renal department to stop taking Bicalutamide because the child was experiencing liver damage. The child’s parent reported this to the Center through the patient’s online self-reporting medical chart (MyChart). The parent said they were not the type to sue, but ‘this could be a huge PR problem for you.’”
- “Children come into the clinic using pronouns of inanimate objects like ‘mushroom,’ ‘rock,’ or ‘helicopter.’ Children come into the clinic saying they want hormones because they do not want to be gay. Children come in changing their identities on a day-to-day basis. Children come in under clear pressure by a parent to identify in a way inconsistent with the child’s actual identity. In all these cases, the doctors decide to issue puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.”
- “In one case where a girl was placed on cross-sex hormones, I found out later that the girl desired cross-sex hormones only because she wanted to avoid becoming pregnant. There was no need for this girl to be prescribed cross-sex hormones. What she needed was basic sex education and maybe contraception. An adequate assessment before prescribing hormones would have revealed this fact. But because the doctors automatically prescribe cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers for children meeting the bare minimum criteria, this girl was unnecessarily placed on drugs that cause irreversible change to the body.”
- “On another occasion, a patient had their breasts removed. This surgery was performed at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Three months later, the patient contacted the surgeon and asked for their breasts to be ‘put back on.’ Had a requisite and adequate assessment been performed before the procedure, the doctors could have prevented this patient from undergoing irreversible surgical change.”
- “It is my belief that the Center does not track these outcomes because they do not want to have to report them to new patients and because they do not want to discontinue cross-sex hormone prescriptions. The Center never discontinues cross-sex hormones, no matter the outcome.”
- “In just a two-year period from 2020 to 2022, the Center initiated medical transition for more than 600 children. About 74% of these children were assigned female at birth. These procedures were paid for mostly by private insurance, but during this time, it is my understanding that the Center also billed the cost for these procedures to state and federal publicly funded insurance programs.”
- “I have personally witnessed staff say they were uncomfortable with how the Center has told them they have to code bills sent to publicly funded insurance programs. I have witnessed staff directly ask the providers for clarification on billing questions and have providers dismiss the concerns and work to have the patients have this care covered as the priority.”
Reed, a St. Louis native, describes herself as “politically to the Left of Bernie Sanders.”
She took a job at the Transgender Center in the summer of 2018, where she was a case manager responsible for patient intake and oversight.
“Soon after my arrival at the Transgender Center, I was struck by the lack of formal protocols for treatment,” said Reed.
“The center’s physician co-directors were essentially the sole authority.”
During her four years at the Transgender Center, Reed said she noticed a significant increase in teenage girls seeking to transition to male.
Reed says children were being labeled as transgender for displaying depression, anxiety, ADHD, eating disorders, obesity, autism, or autism-like symptoms.
“Until 2015 or so, a very small number of these boys comprised the population of pediatric gender dysphoria cases,” said Reed.
“Then, across the Western world, there began to be a dramatic increase in a new population: Teenage girls, many with no previous history of gender distress, suddenly declared they were transgender and demanded immediate treatment with testosterone.”
Reed and her colleagues recognized that the rapid increase in patients seeking transition could be a manifestation of social contagion.
She notes that clusters of girls arrived from the same high school, suggesting they were all following a “woke” trend.
However, their concerns were allegedly dismissed by the physicians.
“Anyone who raised doubts ran the risk of being called a transphobe,” said Reed.
Reed finally left the Transgender Center in November 2022.
She revealed that she decided to come forward after she felt “stunned and sickened” by comments made by Dr. Rachel Levine, Democrat President Joe Biden’s transgender Assistant Secretary for Health at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
Levine, a biological male who dresses in women’s clothes, said that “clinics are proceeding carefully and that no American children are receiving drugs or hormones for gender dysphoria who shouldn’t.”
“Almost everyone in my life advised me to keep my head down,” said Reed.
“But I cannot in good conscience do so.
“Because what is happening to scores of children is far more important than my comfort.
“And what is happening to them is morally and medically appalling.”
