Missouri’s Republican attorney general has slapped emergency curbs on medical procedures for trans children, saying he was putting the brakes on a ‘skyrocketing’ number of ‘inhumane science experiments.’
Attorney general Andrew Bailey announced his crisis ruling on Monday as the Republican-led Senate was struggling to pass a law banning trans procedures for kids, and as hundreds of protestors rallied in Jefferson City.
Under the rule, children seeking puberty blockers and other trans care will have to complete an 18-month waiting period, 15 hour-long therapy sessions and treatment for any mental health issues before Missouri doctors can greenlight an intervention.
Republican lawmakers across the US seek to ban trans procedures they deem irreversible and dangerous, while trans campaigners and major US medical bodies say they save lives among a suicide-prone group.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey says adolescents must wait 18 months and undergo therapy sessions before they can access puberty blockers and other trans drugs and procedures
People applaud during a rally in favor of legislation banning gender-affirming healthcare for minors at the Missouri Statehouse in Jefferson City this week
Bailey said he was upholding a state law against ‘experimental gender transition interventions’ in a statement that warned of ‘skyrocketing numbers’ of procedures despite fears they do more harm than good.
‘Even Europe recognizes that mutilating children for the sake of a woke, leftist agenda has irreversible consequences, and countries like Sweden, Norway, and the UK have all sharply curtailed these procedures,’ said Bailey.
‘I am dedicated to using every legal tool at my disposal to stand in the gap and protect children from being subject to inhumane science experiments.’
The emergency rule also requires disclosure of information about puberty blockers, including that they are experimental, not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and that the FDA says they can cause brain swelling and blindness, Bailey said.
Gender-affirming care, as it is known, covers everything from puberty blockers to cross-sex hormones and, in rare cases for trans children under 18, surgery.
Opponents of trans ideology say sex is determined at birth and cannot be changed, that medical groups have been hijacked by trans activists and that politicians must step in and stop parents, doctors, or therapists from permanently harming children.
Many are alarmed by the sharp uptick in teenage girls with autism and other mental health woes seeking gender-change drugs in recent years, and of new studies linking puberty blockers to weaker bones and osteoporosis.
This is not the first time Bailey has weighed in on transgender health care since taking office in January.
Last month, Bailey announced an investigation of a trans youth clinic in St. Louis run by Washington University, following allegations of abuse by a former employee, Jamie Reed.
In a bombshell whistleblower testimony, Reed revealed how the clinic administered a litany of irreparable treatments to minors, often without parental consent, or after bullying parents into consenting by saying their children would kill themselves.
Bailey’s office at the time accused the clinic of ‘harming hundreds of children each year.’ He asked the university to shut down the clinic, but it refused.
According to the Gender Mapping Project, six facilities provide trans medical care to children across Missouri, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and, in some cases, surgery.
Bailey’s rule appears to be aimed at helping children who might regret transitioning, said Dr Jack Drescher, section editor of the gender dysphoria chapter of the most recent edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s mental illness manual.
‘However it does so at the expense of those children who would indeed benefit from transition services,’ Drescher said.
Trans campaigner Julia Williams, a natal male, holds a sign in counterprotest during a rally in favor of a ban on gender-affirming health care legislation at the Missouri Statehouse in Jefferson City this week
Critics of gender-affirming care point to the growing number of young people who undergo treatment but later regret it. Pictured: de-transitioner Prisha Mosley showing the scars from a breast removal operation she now wishes had never happened
‘Sacrificing the wellbeing of the latter for the presumed benefit to the former is an ethically troubling intervention by the state into clinical practice.’
Alejandra Caraballo, a trans campaigner and clinical instructor at Harvard Law School, said Bailey was ‘not a doctor’ and had ‘no right’ to set arbitrary rules on which procedures were available to children.
‘A lawyer is now engaging in the direct regulation of private medical decisions of Missouri families,’ Caraballo posted on Twitter.
‘This is an unconstitutional overreach.’
The rule comes amid a national push by Republican politicians to restrict transgender health care, drag shows, bathroom access and how LGBTQ topics are discussed in schools.
Florida state medical officials last year banned transgender children from receiving hormones or undergoing surgeries to treat gender dysphoria at the urging of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Texas went farther than any state last year when Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a first-of-its-kind order that instructed child welfare officials to investigate reports of gender-confirming care for kids as abuse.
A couple of hundred people rallied Monday at the Capitol in hopes of pushing lawmakers to pass a law to ban all gender-affirming treatment for children, while several came in opposition.
Jamie Reed blew the whistle on abuse at a trans youth clinic in St. Louis run by Washington University, where she previously worked
Bailey’s office said Washington University’s trans youth clinic in St. Louis was ‘harming hundreds of children each year’
The event featured a range of speakers, including Republican state officials such as Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, Christian leaders, as well as gay and transgender activists who said that only adults should be able to access gender-affirming care.
Catherine Dreher, vice chair of the Missouri Libertarian Party, said her 18-year-old son has dealt with mental health issues, recently left home and wants to transition to a woman, which distresses her.
She opposes allowing that for minors, calling it ‘child abuse.’
Debate on the Missouri bill stalled when the conservative sponsor, Republican Sen. Mike Moon, struggled to negotiate with Democrats on the legislation.
The GOP-led Senate ultimately failed to pass any legislation dealing with the topic before lawmakers left for their annual spring break.
America has in recent weeks witnessed a series of seminal moments in the trans debate and a growing number of pediatricians, parents, politicians, and even trans people question whether affirmation-on-demand is always the best answer.
Critics of the trans movement often point to de-transitioners, as they are known, like Chloe Cole, 18, who last month sued the healthcare providers who gave her puberty blockers at age 13 and a double mastectomy at 15 — procedures she now regrets.
Bailey and other critics of gender-affirming care in the US point to recent policy shifts in Europe, where health chiefs in several countries have backtracked after carrying out their own policy reviews.
Britain’s health service recently decided to close the country’s only gender identity clinic for children, after a damning review and a slew of allegations by former staff and patients about rushing young people onto treatment.
A major Swedish clinic in 2021 stopped giving puberty blockers and hormones to children, and Finland’s health chiefs decided that psychotherapy, not drugs and hormones, should be the first-line treatment for gender-dysphoric youngsters.
Finland’s top transgender treatment expert, Dr Riittakerttu Kaltiala, last month said ‘four out of five’ teens who question their gender come to accept their bodies if they don’t receive medical intervention.
A recent study by the medical watchdog, Do No Harm, found that the US has more lenient policies on chemical and surgical sex change services for children when compared against 11 European allies.
