JEFFERSON CITY — Nearly six months after announcing an investigation into the Washington University Transgender Center at ºüÀêÊÓƵ Children’s Hospital, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said this week his probe was ongoing.
Bailey on Feb. 9 confirmed his office had been investigating the center after Jamie Reed, a former case manager there, contacted the attorney general and alleged children received puberty blockers and hormone therapies without proper screening or parental consent.
Reed also provided the attorney general with “documentary evidence that the Center has been unlawfully billing state taxpayers to fund these actions,†and also signed a sworn affidavit on Feb. 7, according to a news release sent out at the time.
The Republican attorney general said his office had received “disturbing allegations†that individuals “have been harming hundreds of children each year, including by using experimental drugs on them.†He went on to say his office was “thoroughly investigating.â€
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Bailey said the Division of Professional Registration, which disciplines medical professionals, and the Department of Social Services, which administers the state’s Medicaid funds, would join his investigation.
“The investigation is ongoing,†Caitlin Whaley, spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services, said in an email Thursday.
And at the Missouri attorney general’s office, an office spokeswoman had no news to share.
“Our investigation into the pediatric transgender center continues,†said Madeline Sieren, spokeswoman for Bailey, in an email on Wednesday. “Due to the fact that it is ongoing, I am going to wait to comment on our findings until the investigation is complete.â€
After Bailey initiated his investigation, Missouri lawmakers, lifted by Reed’s allegations, approved limits on transgender care for minors, which Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed in June.
Opponents of the law filed a lawsuit in Cole County Circuit Court this week in an attempt to block the measure from taking effect Aug. 28.
After announcing his probe on Feb. 9, Bailey the next day called on the president of ºüÀêÊÓƵ Children’s Hospital and the chancellor of Washington University to issue a moratorium on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for children pending his investigation.
When the clinic rejected Bailey’s plea, on Feb. 17 he pledged that “no stone would go unturned†in his effort to “root out any case of child abuse that occurred within that clinic.â€
“If even 10% of the allegations in the affidavit are true, we’ve got a serious issue,†Bailey said in a statement.
Since announcing his investigation into the ºüÀêÊÓƵ clinic, the scope of Bailey’s probe has appeared to expand. On April 13, he said in a statement, “My office has uncovered a clandestine network of clinics across the state who are harming children by ignoring the science.â€
Planned Parenthood, which gender-affirming care to teens 16 or older, sued the Missouri attorney general March 31 in an effort to quash a subpoena issued to the organization.
There has been no recent action in the case, filed in ºüÀêÊÓƵ Circuit Court.
Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City filed a similar lawsuit against the Missouri attorney general in April. That case was still pending Thursday.
Bailey filed regulations with the secretary of state in April to greatly limit transgender health care for transgender minors and adults through a list of rules including a therapy requirement that created an 18-month waiting period for care.
Bailey withdrew the regulations in May after a ºüÀêÊÓƵ County judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the rules until July.
Meanwhile, Washington University conducted its own investigation, releasing the results in April and concluding that Reed’s claims were unfounded.
“The review affirmed that physicians and staff at the Center follow appropriate policies and procedures and treat patients according to the accepted standards of care,†the university said in a statement.
In her affidavit, Reed described hormone treatment for gender-questioning adolescents at the clinic as inevitable, characterizing it as “the prevailing narrative of immediate cross-sex hormones for all by the prescribing physicians.â€
The university’s review found that fewer than half of its adolescent patients, 531, received cross hormones, which allow them to develop secondary sex characteristics of the gender with which they identify, such as breasts and wider hips for girls and deeper voices and broader shoulders for boys.
An additional 67 patients were prescribed puberty blockers, which pause the physical changes of puberty, but not cross-sex hormones. The rest, 567, were not prescribed puberty blockers or hormones.
A spokeswoman for Washington University did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday about the continuing investigation, or how it planned to comply with the new state law prohibiting new adolescent patients from receiving puberty blockers or hormone therapy for four years, beginning Aug. 28.
Reed, who is lesbian, said in June that she had been working to build a coalition of LGBT people to “share concerns about the medical model of care for trans and gender diverse young people in North America.
“We also are appalled at the attacks on free speech being pushed out by LGBT organizations claiming to speak for this ‘community,’†Reed said.