JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Today, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed suit against Washington University in St. Louis for failing to hand over documents they had previously agreed to provide to his office amidst his investigation into their pediatric transgender clinic. General Bailey launched the investigation in February after a whistleblower came forward with allegations that the center used experimental drugs on children, distributed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without individualized assessment, and bullied parents into “consenting” to giving their children life-altering drugs.
General Bailey’s lawsuit states that there is reason to believe the Biden administration is interfering with the investigation. It asks the court to compel the transgender clinic to hand over the documents they previously agreed to produce.
“We will not let Joe Biden and his federal bureaucrats interfere with our investigation into the pediatric transgender clinic. These documents are critical to exposing that children were subject to irreversible, life-altering procedures without full and informed parental consent,” said Attorney General Bailey. “We’ve been fighting to protect children since the day I took office, and we will not stop now.”
After launching his investigation, Attorney General Bailey issued civil investigative demands (subpoena power reserved for his office) to the pediatric transgender clinic. The clinic began its compliance with the subpoena, handing over documents to the Attorney General’s Office. Then, the federal government launched an investigation into the center.
As laid out in the lawsuit, the State has reason to believe the federal government is pressuring the university not to hand over documents they had previously agreed to provide, under the guise that requesting patient records violates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Attorney General Bailey points out these concerns are baseless since Missouri law requires his office to protect the privacy of all patients, and HIPAA expressly permits producing documents in response to a subpoena like the one Attorney General Bailey issued. “To be clear, the State takes very seriously any applicable privacy concerns, as well as the statute that requires confidentiality of materials received in response to a CID. § 407.060, RSMo. The State commits to following the confidentiality requirements imposed by law.”
General Bailey also notes that the requested documents are the only way his office can thoroughly complete his investigation into the whistleblower’s allegations. “For example, the whistleblower alleged that the clinic fraudulently billed both public and private insurance for unnecessary procedures. That allegation lies squarely within the MMPA, and information relevant to that allegation will appear in the medical records themselves. Indeed, that is likely the only place the most pertinent relevant information will be.
“Similarly, the whistleblower alleged that individuals at the clinic lied to parents about the risk of suicide in order to induce parents into paying for costly, life-altering medications. Conversations and disclosures about the risks of intervention compared to nonintervention are likely to appear in medical charts.”
The stakes for this investigation could not be higher. “Unfair and deceptive practices are always problematic, but they are especially problematic in this context because the cost is more than economic,” said Attorney General Bailey in his lawsuit. “Inducing a person to purchase gender transition services through unfair or deceptive practices leads to life-altering physical consequences.”
General Bailey seeks a court order forcing the university to comply with his subpoena and hand over the requested documents within twenty days.
The pediatric transgender center ceased providing gender transition interventions to minors in September, mere days after Attorney General Bailey successfully defended in court Missouri’s bill banning such procedures. With his court win, Missouri became the first state in the nation to successfully defend at the trial court level a law barring child mutilation. However, in his fight to protect children, Attorney General Bailey’s investigation into the clinic continues.
The full lawsuit can be read here.