Missouri AG says probe uncovered 'shadowy' network of clinics helping minors change gender

Missouri GOP Attorney General Andrew Bailey said Wednesday an investigation by his office has uncovered a network of clinics that are helping minors transition from one gender to another. 

"There's a shadowy, clandestine network of these clinics across the state of Missouri that are encouraging kids to come in," Bailey said on the John Solomon Reports podcast. "They're encouraging them to believe they have mental health problems and then are jumping the gun to administer puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and recommending – ultimately –surgery that's damaging and irreversible."

Last month, Bailey's office started an investigation into the Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after a whistleblower made allegations of child transitioning going too far.

"This is a whistleblower that voluntarily worked at a pediatric transgender clinic because she believes in transgender rights," Bailey explained. "She is self described as a progressive. And so when she says these procedures go too far and that there aren't adequate safety guards in place and the children are being harmed, we've got to take it seriously."

The focus of the ongoing investigation, Bailey says, is whether such clinics are using experimental drugs on children without parental consent, which is illegal.

"This is a woke left-wing ideology that's masquerading as medicine and it's harming children," he said. "I mean European nations that are far to the left of America like Sweden, Norway, England and France-they've abandoned these kinds of treatments.

"And when I say treatments, I'm talking about  just experimental medication and puberty blockers and cross sex hormones that are not approved by the FDA for this kind of procedure."