A law protecting minors from transgender procedures recently took effect in Missouri, and it has prompted some providers of “gender-affirming” services to minors to announce that they are “canceling pre-existing prescriptions for puberty blockers or hormone-replacement therapy,” reported the Missouri Independent. However, Planned Parenthood (a top provider of so-called “gender-affirming care”) has vowed to continue to treat or refer minors who visit their facilities.
Missouri’s SB 49, referred to as the “Missouri Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act,” was signed into law in June of this year. The legislation, which took effect August 28, prohibits health care providers from “perform[ing] gender transition surgeries on any minor.” It also prohibits “prescrib[ing] or administer[ing] cross-sex hormones or puberty-blocking drugs to a minor for a gender transition, unless such minor was receiving such treatment prior to August 28, 2023.”
Last month, St. Louis Circuit Judge Steven Ohmer ruled the measure could take effect even as a lawsuit surrounding the legislation is argued in the courts. If the ban is upheld, it will be in effect “[u]ntil August 28, 2027,” the text of the law clarified.
“The science and medical evidence is conflicting and unclear. Accordingly, the evidence raises more questions than answers,” Ohmer wrote in his ruling. “As a result, it has not clearly been shown with sufficient possibility of success on the merits to justify the grant of a preliminary injunction,” the judge also wrote, according to several sources.
Here is Judge Homer’s Order.
“The science and medical evidence is conflicting and unclear” pic.twitter.com/vaTfgPpyE3
— Jamie Reed Whistleblower (@JamieWhistle) August 25, 2023
Planned Parenthood
“Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains [PPGP], while it offered cross-sex hormones for patients ages 16 and older, did not have any minor patients receiving gender-affirming care in August, so the clinics do not have any patients grandfathered into the new law,” claimed the Missouri Independent.
The PPGP affiliate, which says online that it was founded a few years after “Margaret Sanger came to Kansas City to enlist the community in forming an organization dedicated to family planning,” links to a chat service called Imi for teens on their website. Imi’s website claims to provide “[g]uides built for and with LGBTQ+ teens to help you explore your identity and support your mental health.”
Sanger was the founder of Planned Parenthood — a eugenicist who is also often referred to as a “white supremacist” and “racist.”
But even while the Missouri law protecting minors was being challenged, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri had vowed to “continue to see minors (age 16+) in Missouri for gender-affirming care, as long as they begin care before August 28, 2023. Patients who have begun care before August 28 can continue their care in Missouri.”
“Missouri’s Planned Parenthood clinics had been ramping up available appointments and holding pop-up clinics to start patients on treatments before the law took effect,” ABC News claimed. Transgender services have become a significant source of business for Planned Parenthood.
If you are 16 or 17 years old and looking to start gender-affirming hormone therapy, you can book an appointment at our Fairview Heights, Illinois, health center. #NoMOTransBans #MoLeg
— Planned Parenthood (@PPSLR) August 28, 2023
Despite the law in Missouri, Planned Parenthood is notifying transgender-identifying minor clients that after August 28, “Missouri minors looking to start gender-affirming care can come to our health center in Fairview Heights, Illinois,” which is not far across the border.
Planned Parenthood responds to Missouri transgender law SB49
“We are only seeing folks who are 16 years older and if folks have established care with us already. We will continue to see them or at the healthcare that is closest to them. We also plan to open our doors for folks who are 16 years old who’ve established care with another provider who may be losing access to care,” Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, told KSDK.com.
Washington University in St Louis and MU Health
“Health care providers face significant legal liability for prescribing or administering cross-sex hormones or puberty-blocking[] drugs to existing minor patients under the new cause of action,” MU Health’s (University of Missouri Healthcare) public relations manager Eric Maze said in a statement.
“WashU said providing care like puberty blockers and hormones could put it at a risk for lawsuits,” KSDK.com reported.
A press release issued on September 11 by Washington University claimed that “Washington University physicians will no longer prescribe puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to minors for purposes of gender transition. Patients who are currently receiving this care through the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital will be referred to other providers for these services.”
“This legal claim creates unsustainable liability for health-care professionals and makes it untenable for us to continue to provide comprehensive transgender care for minor patients without subjecting the university and our providers to an unacceptable level of liability,” the University wrote before claiming that “Our medical practitioners have cared for these patients with skill and dedication. They have continually provided treatment in accordance with the standard of care and with informed consent of patients and their parents or guardians.”
Washington University in St Louis (WUSTL) has come under intense scrutiny after a whistleblower filed a complaint regarding the University’s Transgender Center, which the New York Times claimed “raised alarms about transgender teenagers arriving every day in crisis, taking hormones but not getting therapy.”
Breaking: “ Washington University physicians will no longer prescribe puberty blockers or cross sex hormones to minors for the purpose of gender transitions”
— Jamie Reed Whistleblower (@JamieWhistle) September 11, 2023
Emergency Regulation Issued, then Withdrawn
In April, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office issued an emergency regulation claiming that “because gender transition interventions are experimental, they are covered by existing Missouri law governing unfair, deceptive, and unconscionable business practices, including in administering healthcare services.”
The emergency rule was withdrawn after SB49 was signed because, according to Bailey, “The legislature has now passed a ban that exceeds the authority of the rule that we passed, so we will now be prepared to defend the statute in court,” Bailey told CNN affiliate KMOV in May of this year.
The AG claimed in the emergency regulation, “Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare (‘NBHW’) recently declared that, at least for minors, ‘the risks of puberty suppressing treatment with GnRH-analogues and gender-affirming hormonal treatment currently outweigh the possible benefits.’”
“Even Europe recognizes that mutilating children for the sake of a woke, leftist agenda has irreversible consequences, and countries like Sweden, Norway, and the United Kingdom have all sharply curtailed these procedures,” he added.
