Red state universities are complicit in the permanent damage that transgender drugs and surgeries inflict on minors who are confused about their gender.
Do No Harm, a medical reform group, has a new database that shows which hospitals are prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones as well as removing healthy organs from minors. The group found there have been a total of 5,747 surgeries for “sex changes” performed on children between 2019 and 2023, according to insurance data.
Transgender surgeries can involve removing breasts, which eliminates the possibility of nursing in the future. It can also include the removal of a woman’s uterus or a man’s testicles. Puberty blockers have also been linked to infertility, which only makes sense since their purpose is to stop normal sexual development.
In many cases, hospitals linked to public universities are, or were prior to legislative changes, committing these procedures. In some cases, the hospital system is a nonprofit organization but affiliated with a public university, including by working with medical students or med school faculty. In all cases, the legislatures can, and should, leverage the relationship to stop the hospitals from operating on children and giving them harmful drugs.
University of Florida Health Shands Children’s Hospital had 13 total “sex change patients,” according to the Stop the Harm Database. This included one surgery patient and 12 patients who received hormone and puberty blockers. Though a nonprofit group, it is affiliated with the public University of Florida College of Medicine.
The long-term damage to minors did not stop Phoenix Children’s Hospital from handing out 86 prescriptions to minors while committing one surgery, according to the database. The hospital works closely with the public University of Arizona College of Medicine, including by training its students on pediatric care.
Indiana University Health is intrinsic to removing healthy organs from Hoosier State teens. Its IU Health Methodist Hospital committed 48 surgeries and prescribed 143 patients puberty blockers and hormones. IU Health West is responsible for another three surgeries, as is Riley Hospital for Children. They are all part of the same nonprofit network, which works closely with the public Indiana University School of Medicine on research and training.
The pending Supreme Court case U.S. v. Skrmetti could empower states to continue to protect children from long-term damage or could establish a new “right.” Even if the Supreme Court goes rogue, as it has a history of doing on social issues, states can still take measures to protect children.
States should prohibit taxpayer dollars from going to institutions for these procedures. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster did this several years ago. He signed a budget preventing the Medical University of South Carolina from receiving funds for “gender transition services.” The university prescribed the drugs, which can be a gateway to surgeries, but it stopped due to the budgetary restrictions.
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A state prohibition on funding the procedures is also likely to survive legal challenges. Even under the Roe v. Wade framework, the Supreme Court allowed states to prohibit public funding of abortion, as Vanderbilt University law professor James Blumstein wrote in an amicus brief.
Presumably, then, states have more freedom to fund or not fund certain medical procedures under the Dobbs v. Jackson framework, which allows states to restrict abortion. States should have a better case for arguing there is no right to have a procedure funded by taxpayers. There certainly is no right to have a procedure that causes permanent damage under the false pretense of being able to change one’s sex.
Matt Lamb is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an associate editor for the College Fix and has previously worked for Students for Life of America and Turning Point USA.