Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has promulgated an emergency regulation targeting gender transition procedures for minors, citing concerns about the experimental nature and significant side effects of these interventions.
In a press release published on Thursday, AG Bailey stated, “As Attorney General, I will always fight to protect children because gender transition interventions are experimental.”
He added that his office has “uncovered a clandestine network of clinics across the state who are harming children by ignoring the science” and is “stepping up to protect children throughout the state while we investigate the allegations and how they are harming children.”
The regulation will be in effect from April 27, 2023, until February 6, 2024.
Bailey’s decision comes after launching an investigation into a St. Louis pediatric transgender center accused by a whistleblower of using experimental drugs on children, distributing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without individualized assessment, and giving children “life-altering drugs without parental consent.”
The regulation emphasizes the need for specific informed-consent disclosures, including information about the experimental nature of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, potential side effects such as brain swelling and blindness, and the lack of FDA approval for treating gender identity disorder or gender dysphoria.
It also cites studies showing increased mortality risk, parents’ belief that their children were worse off after transitioning, and evidence that the majority of prepubertal children with gender dysphoria will not remain so into adolescence.
“A study spanning 5 decades of almost 5,000 transgender people who had received cross-sex hormones, regardless of treatment type, nevertheless showed a ‘two-fold increased mortality risk,’ which ‘did not decrease over time,'” the release explains.
“A study of 1,655 parental reports found that ‘parents tended to rate their children as worse off after transition’ and ‘that parents believed gender clinicians and clinics pressured the families toward transition,” it says, adding that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) “has acknowledged, ‘In most children, gender dysphoria will disappear before, or early in, puberty.'”
To comply with state law under the new regulation, providers must ensure patients receive a comprehensive psychological or psychiatric assessment, treatment for existing mental health comorbidities, and a minimum of three consecutive years of exhibiting medically documented, long-lasting, persistent, and intense patterns of gender dysphoria.
Additionally, providers must screen patients for social media addiction, track adverse effects for at least 15 years, obtain informed written consent, and screen for autism and social contagion related to the patient’s gender identity, according to the press release.
AG Bailey believes this regulation is necessary given the increasing number of gender transition interventions and the rising concerns in the medical community about the lack of clinical evidence for the safety and success of these treatments.
He points out that progressive countries like Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the United Kingdom have all sharply curtailed these procedures, and it is time for the United States to follow suit.
“When even progressive countries like Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the United Kingdom have all sharply curtailed these procedures, it’s time for the United States to course correct,” Bailey said.
