St Louis child sex change clinic shuts down after backlash

A transgender clinic in Missouri that was accused of pressuring parents to allow their children to undergo dangerous sex-change procedures has shut down.

The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital has closed following allegations of pressuring parents to permit their children to undergo sex-change procedures, including the use of puberty blockers and other transgender-related treatments. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced the clinic's closure last week, asserting that it had "mutilated" too many children and describing the shutdown as a “major step” against sex change procedures and protecting children in the state. 

“I want Missouri to be the safest state in the nation for children,” Bailey said. “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 clinic first garnered public attention in February when Jamie Reed, a former case manager, alleged that the care teams were hastily prescribing hormones to teenagers with psychiatric problems, according to the Daily Mail.

Reed, despite being gay and married to a trans-identifying person, exposed these practices. She reported that doctors were routinely prescribing transgender care to children as young as 12 after brief consultations and would pressure parents by suggesting that refusal could lead to their child's suicide, asking, “Do you want a dead daughter or an alive son?”

Reed also testified about a girl-to-boy patient who went on to regret her chest operation and “was begging to have their breasts put back on after having surgery.”

The clinic claimed it stopped prescribing hormone drugs to minors back in September following new legislation from the state that banned the practice. However, the pediatric clinic remained active to help minors transition. 

Nearly two dozen states have implemented some sort of ban on puberty blockers and other forms of transgender procedures for minors.

The Supreme Court will hear a Tennessee case about restricting puberty blockers and hormone therapy for those under 18 in the fall session.