A Missouri judge temporarily halted Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s emergency restrictions on gender-transition drugs and surgeries, saying current patients would be subject to “immediate and irreparable loss, damage or injury” if the regulations take effect.
Mr. Bailey filed the emergency rule April 13 amid an investigation into the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, but St. Louis County Circuit Judge Ellen H. Ribaudo put the rule on hold until May 15. A hearing in the case is scheduled for May 11.
In her Monday decision granting the temporary restraining order, Judge Ribaudo that the emergency rule’s “broad, sweeping provisions were implemented without further fact-finding or evidence.”
“At a minimum, without further court action, Plaintiffs (the current patients) are at high risk of having their medical care interrupted for an unknown length of time; once the Rule goes into effect, they may lose access to medical care through their current providers until such time as the provider can come into compliance with the Rule’s requirements,” the judge said in the 10-page ruling.
Mr. Bailey took emergency action after Jamie Reed, a former clinic case manager, said in a Feb. 7 affidavit that children were being pushed into puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without proper evaluations despite the risks associated with the drugs.
The regulations require prospective patients to undergo at least 15 hours of psychological evaluation over the course of not less than 18 months, and to have a documented diagnosis of gender dysphoria dating back at least three years.
Also required are extensive disclosures about the medical risks, including a statement that the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria is “experimental and is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.”
“Missourians deserve to know that medical organizations across the world have recognized that gender transition interventions being sold are unproven,” Mr. Bailey tweeted last week.
Seventeen states have passed laws or implemented administrative rules banning certain gender-transition procedures for those under 18, according to the American Principles Project.
The Missouri rule is different in that it restricts but does not ban medical treatment, and it includes those over the age of 18.
“On its face, the Emergency Rule clearly applies to both adults and minors as it provides no limitations based on the age of the person or patient,” said the judge’s order. “Additionally, the Attorney General’s Office admitted in oral argument that, under the text of the Rule, these issues do not end when a person reaches the age of 18 years old.”
The petition was filed by Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, and the law firm of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP.
“Today’s ruling marks a win for transgender Missourians over an unprecedented attempt by the Attorney General to unilaterally legislate and harm their right to self-expression, bodily autonomy, and access to lifesaving health care,” said Gillian Wilcox, ACLU of Missouri deputy director of litigation. “As was clear from the beginning, the Attorney General’s claim of an emergency was proven an untruthful and dangerous attempt to get involved in individual and family medical decisions.”
The emergency rule, which was blocked before it was scheduled to take effect, expires Feb. 6.
Washington University said last month that its internal review “affirmed that physicians and staff at the Center follow appropriate policies and procedures and treat patients according to the accepted standards of care, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other nationally recognized organizations.”
Attorneys for Ms. Reed said the results were “little more than the expected self-serving finding” and cast doubt on the number of patients served by the clinic, saying it was substantially higher, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Ms. Reed, who calls herself a queer woman to “the left of Bernie Sanders,” released her allegations against the clinic in a Feb. 9 first-person account for The Free Press headlined, “I Thought I Was Saving Trans Kids. Now I’m Blowing the Whistle.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.