Missouri Attorney General Bailey issues emergency regulation against gender transition interventions for minors

By Web staff

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    JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri (KMOV) — Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced Monday that his office issued an emergency regulation against gender transition interventions for minors.

“As Attorney General, I will protect children and enforce the laws as written, which includes upholding state law on experimental gender transition interventions,” said Attorney General Bailey. “Even Europe recognizes that mutilating children for the sake of a woke, leftist agenda has irreversible consequences, and countries like Sweden, Norway, and the United Kingdom have all sharply curtailed these procedures. I am dedicated to using every legal tool at my disposal to stand in the gap and protect children from being subject to inhumane science experiments.”

Bailey’s office said the regulation is necessary due to a skyrocketing number of gender transition interventions but did not specify what that number was. The Attorney General’s Office said that because gender transition interventions are experimental, the regulation clarifies that state law prohibits performing experimental procedures in the absence of specific guardrails. The office outlined the following guardrails to be included:

Specific informed-consent disclosures informing patients that, among other things, The use of puberty blocker drugs or cross-sex hormones to treat gender identity disorder or gender dysphoria is experimental and is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) The FDA has issued a warning that puberty blockers can lead to brain swelling and blindness Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare (“NBHW”) recently declared that, at least for minors, “the risks of puberty suppressing treatment with GnRH-analogues and gender-affirming hormonal treatment currently outweigh the possible benefits” One scientific study notes that an individual whose friend identifies as transgender is “more than 70 times” as likely to similarly identify as transgender, suggesting that many individuals “incorrectly believe themselves to be transgender and in need of transition” because of social factors The Endocrine Society found that “the large majority (about 85%) of prepubertal children with a childhood diagnosis did not remain GD/gender incongruent in adolescence” Prohibiting gender transition interventions when the provider fails to, ensure that the patient has received a full psychological or psychiatric assessment, consisting of not fewer than 15 separate, hourly sessions over the course of not fewer than 18 months to determine, among other things, whether the person has any mental health comorbidities ensure that any existing mental health comorbidities of the patient have been treated and resolved adopt and follow a procedure to track all adverse effects that arise from any course of covered gender transition intervention for all patients beginning the first day of intervention and continuing for a period of not fewer than 15 years obtain and keep on file informed written consent ensure that the patient has received a comprehensive screening to determine whether the patient has autism ensure (at least annually) that the patient is not experiencing social contagion with respect to the patient’s gender identity

The emergency regulation will last 30 legislative days or 180 days, whichever is longer, according to Bailey’s office.

PROMO Missouri, an LGBTQ public policy and advocacy organization, said in a statement Monday that the attorney general “does not have the right to politicize healthcare nor use transgender bodies as political pawns.” The statement said gender-affirming care is not experimental, as Bailey suggests, but is a life-saving form of healthcare.

PROMO was not the only organization to release a statement in response to AG Bailey’s Emergency Regulation. Dr. Colleen McNicholas, Chief Medical Officer with Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, said in a statement:

“Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s transphobia is an embarrassment to the Show-Me State. The politically driven claims made in the announcement are medically false and harmful. Scientific evidence shows — and the medical community agrees — that gender-affirming care is safe, effective, and life-saving.

“Bailey’s lack of medical expertise shows. His personal moral panic is inappropriately and unlawfully setting harmful policies that will hurt young transgender Missourians and their families. We denounce this government interference in the practice of medicine, and we demand politicians leave health care between providers and their patients. Shame on any politician who uses trans youth for political theatrics.”

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