Vanderbilt Pediatric Transgender Clinic Terminates ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ Before Tennessee Law Takes Effect: Report

Vanderbilt University Medical Center Ceases Gender-Affirming Care for Minors

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has made the decision to stop providing minors with “gender-affirming care” starting from June 1. This comes after a shocking report from Daily Wire host Matt Walsh last year, which led Tennessee lawmakers to pass a law prohibiting doctors from performing sex-change treatments and surgeries on minors.

The Pediatric Transgender Clinic at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital in Nashville, according to local media, has sent emails to parents of children who were receiving these life-altering prescriptions and procedures, informing them that the facility has discontinued its services for minor patients since the beginning of June.

“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 law, set to take effect on July 1, not only threatens doctors with the loss of their licenses but also allows parents and Tennessee’s attorney general to sue medical providers for providing life-altering treatments to children.

Craig Boerner, spokesperson for the medical facility, confirmed the report in an email to local media, stating that Vanderbilt University Medical Center is fully complying with all federal and state laws and closely following the legal proceedings challenging the constitutionality of Tennessee’s new law.

The Biden administration, along with the ACLU and several teenage plaintiffs, is suing to stop the law and is currently seeking an injunction to prevent its enforcement until a judge makes a ruling on the case.

ACLU of Tennessee spokesperson Gillian Branstetter stated, “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.” Branstetter also mentioned that similar laws in Alabama and Arkansas have been blocked while trials are ongoing.

Last year, Matt Walsh uncovered shocking videos showing a doctor referring to certain sex-change surgeries as “huge money makers” and a health law expert expressing concerns about conscientious objections to these surgeries.

“It’s a lot of money,” said Dr. Shayne Sebold Taylor from VUMC Clinic for Transgender Health. “These surgeries make a lot of money.” Taylor revealed that “gender-affirming” double mastectomies could bring in $40,000, while a female-to-male phalloplasty could bring in over $100,000.

A report from Grand View Research stated that the transgender surgery industry was valued at $1.9 billion in 2021 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 11%, reaching $5 billion by the end of the decade.

Another doctor, Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, a Vanderbilt health law expert and pediatrician, suggested that objecting to gender surgery for religious or other reasons should have consequences.

“I just want you to take home that saying that you’re not going to do something because of your religious beliefs is not without consequences, and it should not be without consequences,” Clayton said. “If you don’t want to do this kind of work, don’t work at Vanderbilt.”

Following the exposé, numerous lawmakers demanded an investigation into the Nashville pediatric gender clinic, leading to the immediate suspension of all gender transition surgeries on minors. Officials clarified that the minor patients were over 16 years old and none of them received genital surgeries.