By Dan Hart
The Washington Stand
On Monday, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) announced that his office would file an emergency regulation that would restrict access to controversial gender transition procedures for minors, including the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries to remove healthy organs. The move comes amid growing concerns over clinical gender transition practices in the state as well as a rise in lawsuits from former trans-identifying teenagers who cite physical and psychological harms from life-altering medical interventions.
The Missouri AG office’s new rules will require “an 18-month waiting period, 15 hourlong therapy sessions[,] and treatment of any mental illnesses” before minors would be allowed to undergo gender transition procedures. The regulation further stipulates that “any existing mental health comorbidities of the patient” must be resolved before any gender transition procedures can begin. In addition, minors who seek these procedures must be screened for autism and must be evaluated on a yearly basis to make sure they are “not experiencing social contagion with respect to the patient’s gender identity.”
The action comes a month after a whistleblower gave an explosive account alleging shocking misconduct of staff who worked with minors at The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The allegations include staff members dispensing drugs to children against their parents’ wishes, administering cross-sex hormones to mentally ill children, and ignoring the deteriorating physical and mental health conditions of patients — including at least one suicidal teenager.
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