For some time now, we’ve been tracking the story of the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the various horror stories that have come out of there. When they were accused of performing “transition treatment” on minors, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers, they initially tried to deny they treated anyone under the age of 18. A couple of whistleblowers and some of their own records proved that had been a lie. In another instance, one of their “therapists” recommended “transitioning” an entire class of fifth graders. But no matter how much negative attention they drew, they seemed unmoved to change their ways. This led the Missouri legislature to finally enact a ban on such treatments for minors. And now, at long last, the Center has announced that they will “no longer prescribe puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to minors for purposes of gender transition.” So that’s great news, right? Unless, of course, they’re just lying again. (NY Post)

A Missouri transgender clinic that came under fire for its alleged rush to prescribe hormone drugs to children will end the practice due to a new state law.

The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital “will no longer prescribe puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to minors for purposes of gender transition,” the university announced Monday.

The center became a catalyst for state legislators to draft the new law, which bars hormone therapy for minors under 18 after a whistleblower came forward in February to claim physicians doled out hormone drugs to kids with little screening of their mental health issues.

If you didn’t read it earlier this year, be sure to take a look at the account of whistleblower Jamie Reed. She saw it all from the inside, having worked for Washington University for years, including at the Transgender Center. She witnessed some of the horror stories firsthand. It seems clear that their approach of treating every confused child as transgender before looking to see if they might have other mental or emotional issues probably ruined far more lives than they saved, assuming they saved any.

So have they finally seen the light? Are they making this change because it’s what’s best for the children? Of course not. They specifically cite “legal liabilities” as their reason. The new law would allow exceptions for patients who had already been receiving these treatments prior to August 28, but Washington University is halting treatment for all patients, both old and new.

The Transgender Center decided to end such services to all its patients, new and old, because of a new legal claim the law created for minors who received the medications, university officials said.

“This legal claim creates unsustainable liability for health-care professionals and makes it untenable for us to continue to provide comprehensive transgender care for minor patients without subjecting the university and our providers to an unacceptable level of liability,” Washington University said in a statement.

How very “caring” of you. In other words, you’d still be doing this if it weren’t for the fact that each former patient who comes after you is going to cost you half a million dollars minimum under the new law. I suppose that’s the sort of incentive that was required. After all, the trans medical trend is already a billion dollar per year industry and it’s only growing. It must be heartbreaking to have your finger yanked out of that pie.

But looking back at how this whole story started, we should be asking the Center’s directors one other question. You originally told us that you didn’t perform these procedures on children. So how can you announce that you will “no longer prescribe puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to minors” if you weren’t already doing it? Or is this just an admission that you lied? Either way, at least some children in Missouri will be spared.