Legal watchdog demands answers on child gender treatment from university health centers

America First Legal Foundation pressed several major university health care centers for information on so-called “gender-affirming health care” for minors.

In a press release Thursday, America First Legal announced that it had filed Open Records Requests with five “Gender Clinics” in Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, Utah, and Virginia, that offer “gender-affirming” care to children under 18. Four of the five clinics are associated with University health care centers: the University of Iowa, The Ohio State University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Utah. 

In emails sent to the clinics, America First Legal describes that European health care centers have pulled back on offering “gender-affirming” care for minors. “In reality, “gender-affirming care” involves the practice of prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children under 18, as well as using life-altering surgeries like mastectomies, vaginoplasty, phalloplasty, and metoidioplasty to give children the irreversible appearance of the opposite sex,” the email states.

[RELATED: Hormone therapy, top surgeries part of medical school’s ‘gender-affirming’ care]

The emails state that the clinics are out of step with other Western countries, and that health care centers in the U.S. are pushing irreversible medical treatments without proper protocols in place, without fully informing parents and patients of the risks, and without fully understanding the process themselves. Given the serious and long-term impacts of social and medical transitioning of minors, and that many of the procedures are irreversible, it is crucial for the public to better understand what the several clinics are doing and saying with regard to gender-affirming procedures, the organization wrote.

America First Legal then requested records from the clinics, from the beginning of fiscal year 2020 to the date in which the clinics respond to the request, including:

• How many minors each clinic has treated;

• The number of minors prescribed puberty blockers by each clinic;

• The number of minors prescribed cross-sex hormones;

• The number of cases where minor patients reported serious complications from puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and other gender treatments;

• The number of minors who stopped and/or expressed regret after receiving treatment;

• All records having to do with how each clinic provides third parties for how to respond when parents are “insufficiently supportive” of transition;

• Sources of funding;

• Anyone who receives training from each clinic;

• How each clinic complies with federal conscience protections

• How each clinic obtains parental consent, informs minors and parents about the risks of “gender-affirming” care.

[RELATED: ‘Voice has no gender’: University speech clinic offers ‘gender affirming voice care’]

The University of Iowa told Campus Reform that it intends to reply to the request. The three other university health clinics have not yet responded to request for comment.