St. Louis Children's Hospital doubles down on prescribing cross-sex hormones for trans-identified patients after whistleblower's expose

The chancellor of Washington University and the president and CEO of BJC HealthCare have rejected calls for a moratorium on child sex changes at the St. Louis Children’s Hospital gender clinic, instead saying they were “establishing additional oversight” following whistleblower accusations of malpractice.

Richard Liekweg, president and CEO of BJC HealthCare, and Washington University Chancellor Andrew Martin released a statement Tuesday in response to a call from Attorney General Andrew Bailey for a moratorium on sex change procedures such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones at Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital pending the outcome of an investigation.

In the statement, Liekweg and Martin say they are concerned by the allegations made against the Transgender Center, and that they have begun the process of reviewing the practices and protocols. 

However, the statement went on to say that because the Transgender Center is the only place in the entire state of Missouri where children can access sex changes, they “cannot institute a moratorium that would deny critical, standards-based care to current and new patients.”

“Out of abundance of caution, however, we are establishing additional oversight at the Transgender Center, and we will continue our internal review of practices at the center.”

The serious allegations of child abuse made by whistleblower Jamie Reed earlier this month include clinicians at the Transgender Center prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to extremely mentally ill adolescents, as well as young people experiencing devastating side effects such as vaginal lacerations and genital abnormalities. Reed accused the clinic of interfering in family custody battles in favor of the affirming parent, and of ignoring the wave of detransitioners who started to appear around 2019.

The statement by Leikweg and Martin calls child sex changes “life-saving evidence-based care” and appeals to the authority of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to justify putting gender-distressed children on the experimental and irreversible medical pathway.

But the AAP’s 2018 position statement endorsing child sex changes was drawn up by an activist-led subcommittee that produced a document so riddled with flaws that Canadian sexologist James Cantor published a scathing, point-by-point rebuttal in 2019 which was intended for use when the lawsuits began.

Cantor concluded his paper by saying that the “AAP told neither the truth nor the whole truth, committing sins of commission and omission, asserting claims easily falsified by anyone caring to do any fact-checking at all.”

In light of Reed’s shocking allegations, Republican Senator Josh Hawley announced the Protecting Our Kids from Child Abuse Act Wednesday that would allow those who were harmed by undergoing sex-change procedures as minors to bring legal action against the participating individuals and entities.