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The prestigious Vanderbilt University has suspended gender altering surgeries at its medical center after outrage over claims the hospital ‘chemically castrates’ minors for financial gain.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center [VUMC] confirmed it was freezing all ‘gender affirmation surgery’ on underage patients pending a review of their processes, in response to calls from Tennessee lawmaker to investigate the hospital.
VUMC came under fire last month after conservative activist Matt Walsh released a 2018 video showing Dr. Shayne Taylor – an LGBTQ specialist at the hospital – touting transgender surgeries as ‘huge money makers’ for the hospital.
Walsh also compiled a report of his own investigation into VUMC’s trans program which found the hospital ‘drugs, chemically castrates and performs double mastectomies on minors.’
Dr. Shayne Taylor, a physician at the VUMC Clinic for Transgender Health, was recorded talking about the lucrative finances of transgender surgeries
Vanderbilt University Medical Center announced it is suspending all transgender surgeries pending a review of its program
VUMC announced it would be halting its transgender services, but that it was doing so only pending review of ‘new recommendations’ from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health [WPATH].
‘On September 6, 2022, WPATH [World Professional Association for Transgender Health] published a new version of its recommendations to health care professionals for treatment of transgender persons, known as SOC-8,’ the hospital wrote in a statement to lawmakers.
‘In light of these new recommendations, and as part of completing our internal clinical review of SOC-8 guidance in patients under 18, we will be seeking advice from local and national clinical experts. We are pausing gender affirmation surgeries on patients under age 18 while we complete this review, which may take several months.’
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Senator Marsha Blackburn both called for an investigation into VUMC
The announcement came on the heels of Walsh’s report, which referenced numerous reported videos of hospital staff speaking about their transgender program.
One such video featured a University staff member suggesting the hospital ‘has given irreversible hormone drugs to children as young as 13.’
In a video which Walsh publicly released, Dr. Taylor can be seen explaining how it was the lucrative finances of transition treatments which largely drove the hospital to open a program.
‘Some of our VUMC financial folks in October of 2016 put down some costs of how much money we think each patient would bring in,’ Taylor can be heard saying. ‘And this is only including top surgery, this isn’t including any bottom surgery, and it’s a lot of money.’
Conservative activist Matt Walsh released a report finding that Vanderbilt University Medical Center was performing transgender surgeries for financial gain
A 2018 video showed Dr. Shayne Taylor touting transgender surgeries as ‘huge money makers’
At the report’s release, VUMC released a statement denying any wrongdoing, insisting it provided services only ‘in compliance with state law and in line with professional practice standards,’ according to Fox News.
Vanderbilt University then distanced itself from VUMC, telling Fox the hospital was an independent entity at that the school could not comment on its decisions.
‘Vanderbilt University Medical Center is a fully independent nonprofit and has been a separate legal entity from Vanderbilt University since 2016,’ a university spokesperson said. ‘As such, Vanderbilt University has no role in medical decisions and patient care.’
Tennessee lawmakers responded with outrage at the reports findings, and called for an investigation.
In a statement, Governor Bill Lee said the Tennessee’s children needed to be protected from hospitals seeking to prey on them for financial gain.
‘The ‘pediatric transgender clinic’ at Vanderbilt University Medical Center [VUMC] raises serious moral, ethical and legal concerns,’ he said in a statement, ‘We should not allow permanent, life-altering decisions that hurt children or policies that suppress religious liberties, all for the purpose of financial gain. We have to protect Tennessee children, and this warrants a thorough investigation.’
Senator Marsha Blackburn tweeted ‘Agreed, we are with you,’ in reference to Lee’s stance.
According to Fox News, Lee’s office ‘shared concerns with the Attorney General.’
Tennessee state rep. William Lamberth added his voice to the chorus, saying he was ‘deeply troubled’ by Walsh’s findings of ‘child mutilation.’
‘I’m deeply troubled by what Matt Walsh uncovered about the Pediatric Transgender Clinic at VUMC,’ he said. ‘Gov. Bill Lee is right to call for an investigation, and we will support that investigation 100%. This type of child mutilation should be illegal and soon will be in TN.’
The controversy around VUMC’s practices comes as debates about gender transitioning surgeries and medical treatments rage across the country.
According to numbers gathered by The New York Post, minors experiencing gender dysphoria has exploded in recent years.
Between 2009 and 2019, the number of teens seeking transitional treatment increased 1,000 percent in biological males, and 4,400 percent in females.
In the US, the numbers of youths identifying as transgender has nearly doubled since 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As those numbers rise, an increasing number of people who received transition treatment as minors are voicing their regrets.
‘I was failed by the system. I literally lost organs,’ a 17-year-old girl named Chloe, who began receiving hormone blockers at 13, told The Post.
At 15 Chloe received a double mastectomy, but by 16 she knew she’d made a mistake.
‘I can’t stay quiet,’ Chloe said. ‘I need to do something about this and to share my own cautionary tale.’
As stories from people like Chloe gain more attention, lawmakers have begun to take action to try to prevent similar situations from arising among young people.
Just this month, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed a bill that effectively banned gender- reassignment drugs from being prescribed to minors at the state’s main children’s hospital.
Gov. Stitt said Tuesday: ‘By signing this bill today we are taking the first step to protect children from permanent gender transition surgeries and therapies.
‘It is wildly inappropriate for taxpayer dollars to be used for condoning, promoting, or performing these types of controversial procedures on healthy children.’
He said in a statement that he wanted a prohibition on ‘all irreversible gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies’ on minors.
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