Missouri officials investigate transgender youth clinic

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and the state's Republican attorney general are investigating whistleblower complaints against a transgender health center for children, the officials announced Thursday.

Hawley and Attorney General Andrew Bailey publicly announced their investigations of Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after they say the whistleblower went public with her allegations. The state Social Services Department, state licensing agency and Washington University also are investigating.

Former case manager Jamie Reed claimed in an affidavit that the center mainly provides gender-affirming care but does little to address mental health issues that patients also faced.

Reed claimed one minor received a mastectomy and months later wanted the procedure to be undone. She said one doctor prescribed a medication to enlarge breasts that also caused liver damage.

“I took the job because I support trans rights and firmly believed I would be able to provide good care for children at the Center who are appropriate candidates to be receiving medical transition,” Reed wrote in the affidavit. “Instead, I witnessed the Center cause permanent harm to many of the patients.”

Reed also alleged that the center billed some treatments to the federal Medicaid health care program.

Transgender medical treatment for children and teens is increasingly under attack in many states, labeled child abuse and subject to criminalizing bans. But it has been available in the United States for more than a decade and is endorsed by major medical associations.

Many clinics use treatment plans pioneered in Amsterdam 30 years ago, according to a recent review in the British Psych Bulletin. Since 2005, the number of youth referred to gender clinics...