AG Rokita seeking info on 'sterilization' of children from gender clinics

Attorney General Todd Rokita is alleging that clinics providing gender-affirming care to minors are doing so without disclosing known risks to the children or their parents, calling the procedures a "tremendous money-making opportunity" and alleging that they amount to child abuse.

In a letter sent Tuesday to medical facilities around the state, Rokita requested information including the types of gender-affirming procedures being offered, the frequency of them, the information given to families ahead of medical treatment and how much money facilities make from gender-affirming care.

Indiana General Assembly:Senate moves bill banning gender-affirming health care for transgender kids

In it, Rokita alleges that doctors, clinics and hospitals are prescribing to transgender children treatment that includes gender affirming surgery without disclosing risks, which he says include sterilization. Rokita does not offer evidence that this is happening, rather his letter seeks the information that would confirm or contradict his allegations.

"What are they telling these parents to get the consent?" Rokita asked, discussing the issue on the Fox News program FOX & Friends Tuesday morning. "Are they getting consent?"

According to Rokita's office, the letter was sent to Riley Hospital for Children, IU Ball Memorial Hospital, IU School of Medicine, Eskenazi Hospital, Mosaic Health and Healing Arts, and all Planned Parenthood Centers in Indiana. A spokesperson for Rokita's office said the facilities were chosen "based on our understanding that those clinics may be providing sex change procedures on minors."

"It is incumbent upon healthcare providers to ensure that minors and their parents, as consumers, are adequately advised of the short-term and long-term risks associated with these types of treatment," Rokita wrote in the letter.

Planned Parenthood clinics have not yet received the letter but the organization does not provide gender affirming care of any sort to minors, said Katie Rodihan, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood's Indiana operations. However, in an email statement the organization supported the use of puberty-blocking hormones — whose effects can be reversible — in minors, noting that the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association also support such therapy as essential health care for trans youth.

Others are reading:Indy nurse adopts teen mother of preemie triplets to keep family together

"Attorney General Rokita’s press release is littered with misinformation and medication inaccuracies. He is spreading rumors and rhetoric to gin up headlines and political controversy — all at the expense of Indiana’s trans youth," the statement read. "If a medical professional, minor, and the minor’s parents all agree that the minor would benefit from gender-affirming care, this care should not be denied by politicians who do not know or understand the individual."

While Indiana University Health's standard of practice is not to perform gender affirming surgeries on anyone under 18, the hospital system does provide other forms of evidence-based gender affirming care to minors, said IU Health in an emailed statement.

"Each patient’s care plan is designed to address the patient’s individual needs with parent/guardian involvement and requires consent at every stage," the statement said.

ACLU officials questioned whether Rokita has the authority to demand answers from doctors about the health care that they provide.

“These clinics provide medically necessary care to their patients and have no greater obligation to answer these inquiries than if they had been made by any other person in Indiana," said Ken Falk, legal director for the ACLU of Indiana. "We are very concerned about the constitutional implications of gender affirming care restrictions moving through the Indiana General Assembly, and the letter that the Attorney General distributed to Indiana clinics attempts to validate this unjustified discriminatory legislation.”

Senate Bill 480 passed Senate 36-12

Rokita's inquiry comes as the Indiana General Assembly considers legislation that would ban such procedures. Senate Bill 480 prohibits medical providers from offering any kind of gender-affirming health care to Hoosiers under the age of 18. It passed the Senate last week 36-12.

Representatives from IU Health, which operates the Gender Health Clinic at Riley Children's Hospital, testified before the Senate's health and provider services committee that the clinic does not perform gender-affirming surgery on anyone under the age of 18. The clinic does prescribe puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender children, in consultation with their families, mental health care providers and other physicians.

Who makes the best pizza in Indy?Vote now

The bill has been fiercely opposed by advocates for the LGBTQ community. During testimony, several families of transgender children and a few transgender teenagers receiving hormone therapy asked lawmakers to block the bill, calling gender-affirming care "life-saving" for transgender kids.

Sen. Tyler Johnson, R-Leo, said the bill was about protecting children who are too young to make such decisions.

The bill now is under consideration in the House.

Call IndyStar state government & politics reporter Arika Herron at 317-201-5620 or email her at Arika.Herron@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: AG Rokita accuses medical clinics of child abuse over transgender care