Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Connecticut voters approved early voting. Here’s how their new secretary of state wants to make it happen.

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 13
      • Women lawmakers in Minnesota are in the vanguard of the democracy movement

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 3
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Election 2024
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Military
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

A vehicle drives past the Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C.
A vehicle drives past the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. (STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images)

Health

Medical groups ask Justice Department to investigate threats against hospitals over gender-affirming care

Major medical groups want the DOJ to investigate threats against hospitals providing gender-affirming care for trans youth, sparked by online disinformation.

Orion Rummler

LGBTQ+ Reporter

Orion Rummler headshot

Published

2022-10-03 14:56
2:56
October 3, 2022
pm

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Three major medical associations on Monday asked the Justice Department to investigate threats being made against children’s hospitals and physicians providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the Children’s Hospital Association urged the department “to investigate the organizations, individuals, and entities coordinating, provoking, and carrying out bomb threats and threats of personal violence against children’s hospitals and physicians across the U.S.” 

Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee (VUMC), and Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio have all recently received social media threats after far-right influencers condemned gender-affirming programs offered by the hospitals and spread misinformation on their practices. This has brought both scrutiny — Tennessee Gov. Bill  Lee, a Republican, formally called for an investigation into Vanderbilt’s practices — and threats of violence — a local woman was charged with making a fake bomb threat to the Boston Children’s Hospital. 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

“Whether it’s newborns receiving intensive care, children getting cancer treatments or families accessing compassionate care for their transgender adolescents, all patients seeking treatment deserve to get the care they need without fear for their personal safety,” American Academy of Pediatrics president Moira Szilagyi said in a news release. “We cannot stand by as threats of violence against our members and their patients proliferate with little consequence.”

The Justice Department under Biden has publicly weighed in on state-level fights over transgender rights, through filing friend-of-the-court briefs in discrimination lawsuits and in warning state attorneys general that attempting to block trans youth from gender-affirming care may infringe on the 14th Amendment. In April, the agency put states seeking to block trans youth from accessing gender-affirming care on notice by saying that such actions may violate federal law. 

  • More from The 19th
    A protesters demonstrates against anti-trans legislation in front of the Ohio Statehouse.
  • Health care for transgender adults remains legal, but states are quietly trying to limit access
  • ‘I felt judged’: LGBTQ+ Americans report significantly more medical discrimination
  • Exclusive: Senators ask Biden administration to loosen restrictions on testosterone access

Kellan Baker, executive director and chief learning officer of D.C.-based LGBTQ+ health care provider Whitman-Walker, said hospitals are facing serious threats to the well-being of patients and their families.

“Prohibiting or interfering with providers offering care to these individuals is clearly something that the Department of Justice can and should be interested in, and should take action against,” he said. 

Dr. Morissa Ladinsky, professor of pediatrics at the University of Alabama who provides gender-affirming care to trans youth in Alabama and surrounding states, said that in her view, much of the vitriol around care for trans youth is fueled by the misperception that surgeries are a standard part of the care.

“Nowhere is it within the standard of care to perform genital surgery for gender affirmation for gender dysphoria on children or minors. That doesn’t happen,” she said. The only surgery for trans youth that can take place under accepted medical guidelines is top surgery for transmasculine minors, which is still rare — and not provided at her clinic. 

“It’s my hope that no physician has to undergo threats of fear and intimidation in provision of standard-of-care medicine,” Ladinsky said.

Some trans youth undergo hormone therapy or take puberty blockers as part of their transition, with their parents’ oversight, to alleviate the distress of gender dysphoria and align gender expression with their identity. As detailed in the newest standard of care update from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health — the gold standard for trans health care — more research is being done into the lifelong effects and mental health outcomes of an early transition. 

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

The same groups that wrote the letter to the Justice Department are also urging social media platforms Twitter, TikTok and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, to do more to combat disinformation and to enforce user conduct policies. 

In a statement, the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ+ organization, also called for social media platforms to take action — in addition to local, state, and federal authorities.

“What starts with a post or a tweet quickly spirals into bomb threats, harassing phone calls, death threats and more, and the pace of it has been relentless,” Jay Brown, the organization’s senior vice president for programs, research and training, said in a statement.

VUMC declined to comment on the letter sent to the DOJ and reiterated from a previous statement — released in response to social media criticism of the center — that parental consent is required for the center to treat transgender minors. The center will provide care to adolescents in compliance with state law, the center said. 

The Boston Children’s Hospital and Akron’s Children’s Hospital did not return requests for comment by publication time.

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

Up Next

A protesters demonstrates against anti-trans legislation in front of the Ohio Statehouse.

LGBTQ+

Health care for transgender adults remains legal, but states are quietly trying to limit access

Legal battles have kept policies and bills at bay, but advocates sense they are in a ‘never say never’ moment.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram