Andrew Bailey (L), address reporters after being announced by Gov. Mike Parson as Missouri’s next Attorney General.
Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri said it has filed a lawsuit today in the St. Louis Circuit Court against Missouri’s attorney general. The organization is suing over an investigation into its transgender healthcare program.
In a news release, Planned Parenthood said Attorney General Andrew Bailey has sent a Civil Investigative Demand with more than 50 demands, pursuing HIPAA-protected patient health information and every document that references “social media” or “Tik Tok.”
“Planned Parenthood knows this playbook well, and we’ll move forward just like we have in every other sham investigation — we’ll continue providing expert and evidence-based health care while we fight in court. This investigation is what ignorance and transphobia look like, and they have no place in our exam rooms,” said Yamelsie Rodríguez, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. “To our trans and non-binary patients: our doors remain open to you. We are not backing down.”
Planned Parenthood said its transgender healthcare program has provided care to more than 1,000 patients.
In a response to Missourinet, Bailey’s office said Planned Parenthood was asked to provide “basic documents to explain several things, including why its procedures depart so far from any recognized standard of care.”
“Planned Parenthood is a member of the activist organization WPATH, which has long called for ‘extensive exploration of psychological issues before any physical interventions are considered.’ But rather than provide a single document to explain why it is departing so far from WPATH’s standard, Planned Parenthood is running to court to try to hide everything. Missourians should be very concerned,” he said.
Bailey is investigating allegations about Washington University’s Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. A former employee-turned-whistleblower said “hundreds of children” have been physically harmed each year, in many instances by being given experimental drugs and not being provided with mental health care.
The university said it’s looking into the allegations, and a policy institute affiliated with the university is calling the whistleblower’s credibility into question.
Bailey also announced earlier this month that his office planned to file a set of emergency rules intended to limit transgender health care to minors. Bailey said the rules clarify that gender transition interventions are experimental, adding that state law already bans performing experimental procedures unless certain conditions are met.
According to a statewide LGBTQ organization, called PROMO, gender transition health care is not experimental and is backed by every major medical association in the U.S.
Copyright © 2023 · Missourinet
