Over 5,700 children in 5-year period had gender surgeries, most from 5 liberal states: watchdog
In a five-year span, thousands of minors had gender reassignment surgeries, puberty blockers or hormone treatments at a number of children's hospitals and medical facilities across the country, a medical watchdog is reporting via their new national database.
Do No Harm, a national advocacy group of medical professionals against "woke" hospital agendas, shared the database, called "Does My Hospital Transition Kids?", with Fox News Digital this week. In total, the group conservatively identified 5,747 minor patients who received sex-change surgery, and 13,994 received some sort of gender reassignment treatment between 2019 and 2023.
The data, de-identified to meet HIPAA compliance rules, shows nearly $120 million total in charges for treatments like sex change surgeries and hormone blockers.
"This is a very, very important issue, and it's a very important issue to get right," Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, Do No Harm's chairman, said in a press conference this week.
"And I think, as you'll hear, we've really been meticulous in trying to make sure that the data are as clear as possible and are as accurate as possible. And because of that, you're going to find that, if anything, we're showing the lower limits of what's going on in this whole arena," he said.
"And to be certain that we're not overstating it one iota, we're probably, and almost certainly, understating the nature of the problem," he added.
Researchers analyzed insurance claims from private insurance companies, Medicaid and Medicare, excluding data from Kaiser, self-pay and charity care. They also profiled 68 children's hospitals across the country and identified what they called the "Dirty Dozen" institutions, which is a "list of the 12 worst-offending children’s hospitals promoting sex change treatments for minors," according to the new website.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) was identified as number one, followed by the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Children’s Minnesota, Seattle Children’s, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Boston Children’s Hospital, Rady Children’s Hospital, Children’s National Medical Center, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, Children’s Hospital Colorado, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
According to the data, there are massive differences state by state, particularly in more liberal areas.
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In California, charges exceeded $28 million from over 2,000 minor patients, while Massachusetts saw around $10 million in expenses from 671 minor patients. New York also had one of the highest rates of transgender treatments for young people, with 1,154 minor patients undergoing sex changes between 2019 and 2023.
California, one of the first states to declare itself a "sanctuary state" for transgender procedures, also had the most irreversible surgeries, with 1,359 minors undergoing surgical procedures, followed by Oregon with 357, Washington with 330, Pennsylvania with 316 and Massachusetts with 300.
"Adults can do as they wish, but we feel very strongly that the science behind using these treatments in children is extraordinarily flawed and suggests that children are being harmed in that sense. One of the important issues is to develop some quantitative notion of what's really happening in this arena," Goldfarb said. "And there are lots of myths that are out there, lots of ideas that this is a rare event, lots of ideas that this is localized to just a few places."
Activist and detransitioner Chloe Cole, who underwent a double mastectomy at 15 years old and put on puberty blockers and testosterone at age 13, said the new database "proves the lies from the medical establishment and radical politicians who argue that cases like mine are rare."
"The stats in this database represent thousands of kids who are being treated like Guinea pigs for unproven, and sometimes dangerous, medical experiments. I hope politicians and parents alike use this database to see where these treatments are happening and protect their children from being rushed into irreversible, life-altering treatments," Cole said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
Some of the listed hospitals' board members have openly advocated for transgender youth care over the years. CHOP also has a specific Gender and Sexuality Development Program department, which "supports children and teens up to age 21 who are gender nonconforming, gender expansive and transgender," according to its website.
Madeline Bell, president and chief operating officer of CHOP, affirmed at the time of the department's launch in 2014 the hospital's commitment to providing "culturally competent and affirming healthcare" to LGBT patients and their families.
"This is a tremendous honor that reflects CHOP’s dedication to provide culturally competent and affirming healthcare to our LGBT patients and families," Bell stated.
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In June 2019, president of the American Board of Pediatrics, Dr. David Nichols, emphasized the increasing need for "specialized healthcare" for the growing transgender youth population during the release of the 30th edition of the "KIDS COUNT Data Book," published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This annual report provides a comprehensive review of child well-being in the U.S.
"We have a growing transgender youth population that is receiving healthcare, and the pediatric community has had to adapt to that with clinics and programs to care for these kids. This was not something that existed 30 years ago when ‘KIDS COUNT’ first started," Nichols said.
Pressure from conservative politicians and activists has been mounting in recent years against medical providers who conduct transgender surgical procedures on children. Last month, a group of attorneys general across the country demanded that the American Academy of Pediatrics rescind its support for transgender procedures – such as puberty blockers and surgeries – on children.
The database is just another tool to "expose the dangers of experimental pediatric gender medicine and bring the practice to an end," Do No Harm stated in a news release.