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.
“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.”
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.
https://www.them.us/story/trans-youth-hospitals-justice-department
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