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Vanderbilt Pediatric Transgender Clinic stops providing ‘gender-affirming care’ ahead of new Tennessee law: report

June 15, 2023 | | Print Article

Though it could have continued in its quest to administer so-called “gender-affirming care” to children for a month before a new Tennessee law puts an end to the practice, the Pediatric Transgender Clinic at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Nashville stopped treating dysmorphic kids on June 1.

According to the Nashville Post, parents of children taking life-altering prescriptions to impede puberty and approximate characteristics of the opposite sex were alerted to the early out via email.

“Your current medication prescription is affected by the laws coming into effect regarding gender affirming care,” the email read. “VUMC will not fulfill refill requests for medication prescribed for gender affirming care after June 1, 2023. … All medications dispensed for gender affirming care must have a completion date that is prior to 7/1/23.”

The new Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care is set to go into effect on July 1. Under it, doctors could lose their licenses for failing to comply and parents, along with Tennessee’s attorney general, are given a path to “sue medical providers for providing children with such life-altering treatments,” the Daily Wire reports.

According to the outlet, the legislation was inspired by a “bombshell report” from Daily Wire host Matt Walsh.

“Pertaining to gender-affirming care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, we continue to fully comply with all federal and state laws and are carefully following the legal proceedings challenging the constitutionality of Tennessee’s new law,” VUMC spokesperson Craig Boerner told the Nashville Post in an email.

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In an attempt to shoot down the new law, the Biden administration joined forces in a lawsuit with the ACLU and several teenage plaintiffs, the Daily Wire reports. While waiting for the judge to rule on the case, the progressive plaintiffs are seeking an injunction to prevent the law from being enforced.

“Gender-affirming care would remain legal during the course of our challenge if we get a preliminary injunction from the judge blocking enforcement of any part of the law before the 7/1 effective date,” ACLU of Tennessee spokesperson Gillian Branstetter told the Nashville Post. “Similar laws have been blocked in Alabama and Arkansas while those trials proceed.”

As BizPac Review reported in September 2022, Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee called for a full investigation into VUMC’s Pediatric Transgender Clinic after Walsh obtained videos of lectures given by physicians and administrators who freely admitted that Vanderbilt’s prime motivation in performing  the “gender-affirming” surgeries lies in the fact that the procedures are a “big money maker.”

In one lecture, VUMC Clinic for Transgender Health’s Dr. Shayne Sebold Taylor stated, “These surgeries are labor intensive, they require a lot of follow-ups, they require a lot of our time, and they make money.”

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“They make money for the hospital,” she said enthusiastically.

“If you don’t want to do this kind of work, don’t work at Vanderbilt,” Vanderbilt health law expert Ellen Wright Clayton warned in another lecture.

Melissa Fine
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