A whistleblower says a transgender clinic at a children’s hospital in St. Louis is lying to parents about gender treatments. Now, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has launched an investigation into the clinic to find out what’s really going on inside the four walls of the children’s hospital.
“We’re looking to shut these types of procedures down and protect kids, and if that includes using civil law, criminal law, revocation of licensure, there is no stone that we will leave unturned,” Bailey says.
Since taking office in January, Bailey has taken steps to hold the far Left and the Biden administration accountable. In addition to the investigation into the gender clinic, Bailey has taken legal action against the Biden administration, arguing it engaged in suppression of free speech in collaboration with large social media companies.
Bailey has also called for the removal of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner and filed a lawsuit against her, arguing she is failing to prosecute criminals.
Bailey joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain how he and his office are working to further American values and to protect freedom in Missouri.
Listen to the podcast below or read the lightly edited transcript:
Virginia Allen: It is my privilege today to welcome to the show Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. Attorney General, thank you for being here.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey: Thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it.
Allen: Well, back on January 3rd, you became the 44th attorney general of Missouri, and you have hit the ground running. I’m excited today to take a little bit of time, and talk through some of the ways that you and your office are working to really hold the Biden administration accountable and hold the far left accountable as well, but before we dive into some of that, I do want to take a few minutes here and just get your reaction to the latest ruling on the abortion pill case.
Late Wednesday night, we saw that the [5th U.S. Circuit Court] ruled that, for now, the time being, the abortion pill can still be sold, but it has to be distributed to women in person. What is your reaction, and tell us what is going to happen next?
Bailey: Well, first, I’m proud to be fighting for the unborn, here in Missouri and elsewhere, and proud to have joined other states in filing an amicus brief at the trial court level. In that case, challenging the [Food and Drug Administration’s] illegal exercise of authority that is beyond their statutory authority, and certainly the trial court agreed with us. Unfortunately, that decision was appealed up to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in a three-judge panel in a split decision stayed the trial court’s order and reinstituted the FDA rule in a limited capacity.
There’s still a lot to celebrate here: No. 1, they’re not going to be shipping this abortion pill through the mail. No. 2, they still acknowledge the fact there are serious health concerns to women and children from this dangerous drug, and there’s still a lot of litigation to go. I mean, the litigants still have the ability to appeal the three-judge ruling en banc, meaning the entire 5th Circuit will hear it and eventually this may end up at the United States Supreme Court, but we’re going to keep fighting because we’re always going to stand up and fight for children and women’s health and for the unborn.
Suing Biden Over Free Speech Suppression
Allen: Thank you so much for breaking that down. I think that’s really, really helpful to have your perspective, but let’s go ahead and dive into some of the work that you are doing to hold the Biden administration, specifically, accountable, and I want to start with a lawsuit that you have filed.
You filed a lawsuit arguing that the Biden administration is engaging in coercion and collusion with Big Tech social media companies to suppress free speech. What has your office uncovered regarding the Biden administration’s communication with these Big Tech social media platforms?
Bailey: Well, it’s about protecting the Constitution. We’ve uncovered an Orwellian vast censorship enterprise emanating from a spectrum of bureaucratic agencies at the federal government, all the way to the highest levels of the White House, intended to coerce and collude with woke Big Tech social media corporations to silence Americans’ voices in violation of our First Amendment right to free speech, and they specifically targeted conservative voices, but this should scare everybody.
The remedy for disfavored speech in this country has always been counter-speech, not government censorship. No one would tolerate it if they got on their cellphone and their cellphone provider started muting their conversation when they were saying things the cellphone company didn’t like. Well, that’s what social media censorship is like.
Luckily, Elon Musk, at least on Twitter, has fixed some of that, although it still exists, but this case is much worse. This case, Missouri v. Biden, is much worse because the censorship is at the behest of the federal government. We have emails that directly tie that censorship to the White House and target voices like Tomi Lahren and Tucker Carlson and others in violation of our First Amendment right to free speech, so we’re going to stand up and fight for the Constitution.
Allen: As you all have dug into this, as you’ve looked at some of these examples, you mentioned those emails. What are some of the things that have struck you most as being disturbing as far as how the Biden administration was working with these social media companies to censor speech that they didn’t like?
Bailey: Well, it’s frightening because it is a rejection of our American heritage and the American Constitution. Even the left and right used to be together on this notion that we would elevate the rules of the game above the players and the outcomes, but clearly the Biden administration has jettisoned that approach.
Another frightening thing here is that the court has identified that the nerve center of the vast censorship enterprise, this Orwellian endeavor, emanates from the Department of Homeland Security, so think about that for a minute. An agency that was created in the wake of 9/11 to protect Americans from foreign attack has now been weaponized to silence American voices and a betrayal of our American heritage and American values.
Allen: Where exactly does this lawsuit stand right now? What’s next?
Bailey: Well, we’re at the United States District Court. We’re proud to be partnered with Louisiana on this case, and we have filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop Biden from squelching our First Amendment rights and squelching our conservative voices.
That motion is pending in the United States District Court, and we anticipate going to court in the next few weeks to argue that motion, but in the interim, we’ve had a huge win. The government, the Department of Justice, filed a motion to dismiss, asking for our lawsuit to be kicked out of court, and the judge denied that, and … kept the lawsuit going.
That’s a huge win for Missouri and Louisiana, and for anyone who loves the First Amendment and free speech and the Constitution of the United States.
Allen: What are you ultimately hoping that this lawsuit achieves? If the judge rules in your favor, what does that mean for the Biden administration?
Bailey: Well, it’s problematic for the Biden administration because it means that they’re no longer going to be able to coerce and collude with woke Big Tech social media to silence conservative voices in violation of the First Amendment. Ultimately, what we’re seeking here is to uncover this vast censorship network and expose it to the light of day, so Americans can see it for what it is, which is the president, Joe Biden, weaponizing the federal government against Americans he doesn’t like.
We’re going to expose that, and we’re going to get a court order to stop it.
Bid to Oust ‘Soros-Backed Prosecutor’
Allen: I want to take a few minutes and talk about another lawsuit that you have filed, this one against someone in your home state of Missouri. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, you say, is a [George Soros-backed] prosecutor. You’ve called on her to be removed, and you filed a lawsuit against her. Why?
Bailey: Well, she’s unlawfully refusing to do her job, and we are going to restore the rule of law and find justice for victims in the city of St. Louis. We filed a petition in quo warranto, which is a legal mechanism that allows us to remove this kind of prosecutor who refuses to do her job and is resulting in death and destruction in the city of St. Louis, and after we filed, there was a wellspring of individuals who came forth to provide additional evidence.
We now have 121 pages of additional pleadings in our lawsuit that categorize this evidence from judges, retired and current police officers, former employees of the Circuit Attorney’s Office, and most importantly, victims of these heinous crimes that demonstrate that the circuit attorney, this Soros-backed prosecutor, is refusing to do her job, and she has injected a virus into our criminal justice system by partnering with the Vera Institute, which is a radical left-wing group that seeks to dismantle the criminal justice system.
They don’t review prosecutorial discretion on a case-by-case basis. They look for a systemic approach. They’re more concerned about perceived racial inequality than public safety, and so, victims are dying, and you know what? At the end of the day, the color of the blood running in the streets is all the same color, and that is red, and we’re going to stand up and fight to restore the rule of law.
Allen: When you say that she’s failing to do her job, can you give us some examples? What do you mean by that?
Bailey: Well, if you look at the number of crimes reported in the last two years by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the number of cases she’s filed, she is not prosecuting 96% of crimes that occur in the city of St. Louis. She’s only prosecuting 4% of the crimes.
That’s an absurdly low number. We also have specific instances where she’s lied about her activity in court. She says that she’s objecting to violent offenders being released on bond when the transcripts prove otherwise. She’s consenting to their bond. She’s letting these violent offenders back out onto the streets, where they’re hurting and killing people, and so we’re going to put a stop to it.
Allen: Later this month, a judge is going to hear arguments for this case. What is your office arguing before that judge? What do you want to see happen here?
Bailey: Well, we’re going to court next week, and we’re arguing for expedited discovery. Look, we’ve gotten hundreds of examples of individual cases that have been dismissed or never been prosecuted, victims that weren’t notified in violation of the circuit attorney’s statutory, constitutional, and ethical obligations.
We have all of that evidence, but we need to get into her files, and look at what she’s been doing, and depose her and her staff, and so we’re asking for a court order to do that, and we’re asking for a trial on the merits of this case.
We want our day in court because the people of the city of St. Louis and of the entire region deserve clarity on this issue in order to restore the rule of law and find justice for victims.
Stop Gender Surgeries on Children
Allen: Well, as we talk about the way that your office is working to hold the Biden administration and the far left accountable, we have to talk about an issue that I think all Americans are really concerned with, and that’s what we have seen in this rise of gender clinics, and specifically, these clinics in children’s hospitals.
Earlier this year, you all launched an investigation into Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. This investigation involves evidence that was brought forward from a whistleblower who was a former case manager at that children’s gender clinic.
What does this whistleblower say is happening within the walls of that gender clinic?
Bailey: Well, it’s about protecting children, for me, and we have to take this whistleblower seriously. This is a person that identifies as a progressive, who’s married to a “trans man,” who volunteered to work at a kids transgender clinic because she believes in transgender rights, and if even 1/10th of what she’s saying is true, it’s nothing short of child abuse, so we called on the clinic to institute a moratorium to stop administering cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers and recommending irreversible transition surgeries for minors, for children, until such time as we could be assured that there were safeguards in place, and they refused.
The allegations in the affidavit are that there were no clinical assessments. There was no provision of psychology and psychiatry for these kids that come into the clinic and that the clinicians race to administer cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers and recommend irreversible surgeries, without properly notifying and obtaining consent from the parents.
Now, think about that for a minute. I have a four-year-old. I cannot consent for my four-year-old to ride in the front seat of my car. I cannot consent to that. The state law does not allow it, but somehow parents, without full knowledge of the fact that these drugs are not approved by the FDA, and without full knowledge that cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers cause blindness, loss of bone density and other irreversible harms. Without that knowledge, parents can consent to these dangerous medications and surgeries.
We called on the clinic to institute a moratorium. They declined, and they used the excuse that they were the only clinic in the state of Missouri that did these kind of treatments. Well, a subsequent investigation has revealed that’s not true. There is a shadowy clandestine network of kids transgender clinics across the state of Missouri, and to that end, I’m proud to say, in order to fight to protect kids today, my office is issuing an emergency rule to fight against these kinds of dangerous and experimental science experiments, masquerading as medicine, against our children.
Allen: What does that emergency rule include? What are the steps that you all are taking within that? How will that rule help to ultimately protect the lives of vulnerable children?
Bailey: Well, it’s the first step. It’s the first of its kind in the nation. This is an innovative approach, and I encourage like-minded attorneys general across the nation to adopt this, because this can be a huge win for all of us to protect this generation of children, but specifically, the rule clamps down on these providers and requires psychological assessments.
Let’s treat mental health problems with traditional mental health remedies like psychiatry and psychology. Let’s also make sure that these providers are actually obtaining and retaining genuine, real parental consent that acknowledges the fact that the FDA has not approved these drugs and that several other European countries, that are far to the left of America culturally, have rejected cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers in surgery, in favor of psychology and psychiatry because they realize that there’s no evidence to support administration of these dangerous drugs and that these providers need to be tracking adverse outcomes.
They don’t get to hide their head in the sand like ostriches and ignore the fact that they’re causing harm to children, and then we also want some really detailed information in the informed consent that parents are being provided, and that’s going to tamp down on this.
This is just a first step, and we’re encouraged by the work the General Assembly here in Missouri is doing to ultimately ban these kinds of dangerous procedures.
Allen: One of the things as I looked at the information that the whistleblower has brought forward, one of the things that I found disturbing, was that they reported that they had seen cases where children were not suicidal at all, didn’t struggle with suicidal thoughts, then started taking puberty blockers, started taking hormones, and all of a sudden then were suicidal.
What kind of information are you all uncovering as you further dig into what is happening in this gender clinic?
Bailey: Well, the allegations are consistent with what you’re saying, that kids come in with a minor mental health condition, and they probably just need to talk to someone. The whistleblower alleges that 75% of the kids that come in with “gender dysphoria” claim that they learned about their gender from TikTok.
I mean, think about that for a minute. These kids need someone to talk to them in this critical point in their life, where they’re going through changes, and rather than use psychology and psychiatry, the allegations are the clinic ignores psychology and psychiatry and pushes these dangerous medicines without informing anyone of the experimental nature of the drugs.
I would also point out that there’s a really specific allegation that kids who weren’t suicidal before, when the clinicians go to obtain parental consent, while the kid is there in front of the clinician, and the parent is there, the clinician will say things like, “Do you want a live daughter or a dead son?” Well, that’s not informed consent. That’s coercion, and that’s injecting suicidal ideations into a conversation where they didn’t exist before.
This is nothing short of woke left-wing ideology masquerading as medicine, seeking to experiment on kids, and we’re not going to allow it here in the state of Missouri.
Allen: Where is this investigation ultimately leading? What do you see as the end goal here?
Bailey: Well, we’re looking to shut these types of procedures down and protect kids, and if that includes using civil law, criminal law, revocation of licensure, there is no stone that we will leave unturned. It’s an “all hands on deck” approach to put an end to these dangerous practices.
Allen: Attorney General Bailey, thank you for your time today. We truly appreciate you joining us and for anyone listening who wants to follow you, keep up with what work that you’re doing, your office is doing, I encourage everyone to follow you on Twitter @AGAndrewBailey. Attorney General, thank you.
Bailey: Thank you.
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