UPDATE, 4/12/2024: The Court has now ordered Planned Parenthood-St. Louis to turn over documents relating to gender transition interventions they performed on minors, according to a release from Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
“Attorney General Bailey is now 3/3 in his court battles across the state to force clinics that performed gender transition interventions on children to comply with his investigations,” the release stated. In a Twitter/X thread, the AG added, “There is no more important fight than to ensure Missouri is the safest state in the nation for children.”
Additional court rulings related to Planned Parenthood-Great Plains can be viewed here and those related to Children’s Mercy can be viewed here.
9/21/23: A Planned Parenthood lawsuit has been filed in response to an investigation opened by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey regarding transgender services.
The move follows whistleblower claims at a separate transgender facility in the state which also promoted an AG investigation. It alleged Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital routinely prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy without “appropriate or accurate” mental health assessments.
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is also looking into allegations at the Transgender Center and recently sent a letter to the University with instructions to preserve records.
We launched a CID into Planned Parenthood when we realized they were blatantly advertising these practices on their website- and they rushed to court to avoid handing over any documents.
What are they hiding? https://t.co/Rl4vVaf9Uh
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) April 28, 2023
Missouri AG Investigation of Planned Parenthood
According to the Associated Press, Attorney General Andrew Bailey demanded documents from Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri (PPSLRSWMO) after learning that the facility provides “life-altering gender transition drugs to children without any therapy assessment,” spokeswoman Madeline Sieren said in a statement. She described that as a departure from standard care.
“The attorney general’s office is leading an investigation into the allegations, with the assistance of the Missouri Department of Social Services and Division of Professional Registration,” wrote the Missouri Independent.
According to Missourinet.com, Bailey’s office said Planned Parenthood was asked to provide “basic documents to explain several things, including why its procedures depart so far from any recognized standard of care.”
“In an email statement from his spokeswoman responding to the lawsuit, Bailey claimed Planned Parenthood is not following the recognized standard of care for its transgender patients,” KRUC.org reported. “As evidence, the attorney general’s office pointed to Planned Parenthood’s website, which says the organization offers hormone replacement therapy to patients 16 years and older and that ‘you don’t need to participate in therapy or provide information from a mental health provider to receive hormone therapy.’”
The attorney general’s office said it also has “additional sources that have been uncovered by our ongoing investigation,” according to KRUC.
In response to the investigation, the Planned Parenthood affiliate filed a lawsuit after “Bailey sent a Civil Investigative Demand to PPSLRSWMO that contained over 50 separate demands,” Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis wrote in its release. The Planned Parenthood lawsuit claimed there was nothing in Reed’s affidavit pertaining to their facilities.
The Planned Parenthood lawsuit is asking the judge to strike down Bailey’s demand for records, which Planned Parenthood says included “HIPAA-protected patient health information and every document that references ‘social media’ or ‘TikTok,'” claimed the Columbia Tribune.
Planned Parenthood abortionist Colleen McNicholas, who once confessed that “viability” does not necessarily depend on gestational age and is PPSLRSWMO’s chief medical officer, described Bailey’s investigation as a ‘fishing expedition’ to KSDK.com. She also alleged that Bailey was using the “same playbook” that anti-abortion activists and elected officials have used to restrict abortions.
McNicholas serves as co-director of the TRANSforming Community TRANSforming Care program.
Attorney General Bailey responded to the Planned Parenthood lawsuit, telling Missourinet.com, “Planned Parenthood is a member of the activist organization WPATH, which has long called for ‘extensive exploration of psychological issues before any physical interventions are considered.’ But rather than provide a single document to explain why it is departing so far from WPATH’s standard, Planned Parenthood is running to court to try to hide everything. Missourians should be very concerned.”
The Attorney General’s Office also published this March 31, 2023, response in an X (formerly Twitter) thread:
Following discovery that Planned Parenthood provides life-altering gender transition drugs to children without any therapy assessment, Attorney General Bailey asked Planned Parenthood to provide basic documents to explain several things, including why its procedures depart so far from any recognized standard of care. Planned Parenthood is a member of the activist organization WPATH, which has long called for ‘extensive exploration of psychological issues’ ‘before any physical interventions are considered.’ But rather than provide a single document to explain why it is departing so far from WPATH’s standard, Planned Parenthood is running to court to try to hide everything. Missourians should be very concerned.
There is also a growing recognition that there is not yet solid evidentiary support for gender transition interventions. As the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has determined, ‘There is a lack of current evidence-based guidance for the care of children and adolescents who identify as transgender, particularly regarding the benefits and harms of pubertal suppression, medical affirmation with hormone therapy, and surgical affirmation.’
That’s why Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, among others, have declared this to be ‘experimental’ and have substantially limited the circumstances where these interventions can be prescribed. Planned Parenthood’s decision not to follow the science, and not to even explain why it will not follow the science, is very concerning.
We look forward to prevailing in this request for information and learning what is truly going on with Planned Parenthood in connection with gender transition issues.
Planned Parenthood Affiliate
“In 2021, Planned Parenthood, the Missouri Foundation for Health and the Metro Trans Umbrella Group launched the aforementioned program called TRANSforming Community TRANSforming Care, which expanded access to gender-affirming care. According to PPSLR’s web page on “hormone replacement therapy,” the organization offers hormone injections “to patients who are 16 and older and does not require a letter of support from a mental health provider,” the Springfield News-Leader claimed.
PPSLRSWMO recorded seeing 121 “transmen” and 38 “transwomen” in their FY2021AR, writing that in March of 2021 the affiliate rolled out the ‘TRANSforming Community, TRANSforming Care’ program. The website claims to “offer hormone replacement therapy to patients 16 years and older. If you are 16 or 17, there are additional requirements.”
But recently, the Columbia Tribune claimed that “Planned Parenthood says [this program] has provided gender-affirming care to more than 1,000 patients.”
In August, Missouri’s SB 49 took effect. The law, which would protect minors from transgender services or procedures in the state, 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.
Recipients of the letter include Washington University (St. Louis), Southampton Healthcare (St. Louis), Children’s Mercy (Kansas City), Planned Parenthood Great Plains, Planned Parenthood St. Louis, and AIDS Project of the Ozarks (Springfield).
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) August 30, 2023
“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, which is a top provider of so-called “gender-affirming care” nationally.
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.”
“After August 28, Missouri minors looking to start gender-affirming care can come to our health center in Fairview Heights, Illinois,” the Planned Parenthood affiliate states on its website.
