Josh Hawley brings bill to allow minors harmed by sex change procedures to sue providers

Senator Josh Hawley announced legislation on Wednesday that would allow those who were harmed by undergoing sex-change procedures as minors to bring legal action against the individuals and entities who provided the procedures.

Hawley, a Republican and senator for Missouri, introduced the Protecting Our Kids from Child Abuse Act following the shocking accusations of abuse and medical malpractice at The Washington University Transgender Medical Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital made by whistleblower Jamie Reed earlier this month.

"What the American people are seeing take place at pediatric gender clinics in St. Louis and across the nation is appalling," said Senator Hawley. "Children who are harmed by these dangerous procedures, which are often irreversible and sterilizing, will now be able to fight back against those who perpetrated their abuse. And federal taxpayers will no longer be forced to foot the bill for abusive treatment."

Last week, Hawley announced an investigation into the potential malpractice occurring at the gender clinic at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. He also requested the university’s chancellor, hospital president, and the center’s co-directors provide answers regarding the gender-related procedures performed on minors since the center opened. 

The Protecting Our Kids from Child Abuse Act would create a private right of action for individuals who have sex-change procedures performed on them while still minors, and would open up those performing the procedures to legal action.

The act would make it possible to bring lawsuits against pediatric gender clinics, the medical practitioners who perform the procedures or were employed by the clinic, as well as the university or hospital that is affiliated with the clinic.

The act would also prohibit federal funding for any pediatric gender clinic, or any university or hospital that is affiliated with a gender clinic, and for any sex change-related procedure being performed on a minor.

Reed’s whistleblower article alleges that minors, many with serious mental health issues, were recklessly fast-tracked onto the medical sex change pathway by clinicians at the St Louis Children’s gender clinic. Reed also documented the harrowing complications many young people experienced, including a teenage girl who suffered a vaginal rupture because the testosterone she was put on led to a thinning of her vaginal wall.