Children’s Mercy sues Missouri AG Bailey over investigation into gender-affirming care
Calling his demand for records and testimony a “burdensome overreach” despite “no allegations of wrongdoing,” Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City is suing Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey over an investigation his office opened last month into gender-affirming care.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Jackson County, asks a judge to toss out an investigative demand letter sent by the attorney general’s office in late March. Requests include all instances when child abuse was reported to law enforcement and questions of whether the hospital prescribes hormone blockers for, or performs surgery on, transgender patients.
At issue is an investigation launched by Bailey of a pediatric transgender center in St. Louis after a former employee publicly raised allegations that medical professionals had harmed children in St. Louis. His office has widened the scope of its investigation to other healthcare providers in the state.
In response to a request for comment, Madeline Sieren, a spokeswoman for Bailey’s office, said in a statement Saturday that the pediatric hospital is “is refusing to provide even a single document to explain its practices.”
“That is very concerning,” she said, adding that the the attorney general’s office looks forward “to prevailing in this request for information and learning what is truly going on.”
Bailey, a Republican who was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson in November, announced last month that his office would investigate claims made against Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center in St. Louis specifically. He has since claimed — without providing further evidence — that his office “uncovered a clandestine network” of clinics in Missouri that are “harming children.”
Bailey has also announced a set of emergency rules, aimed at restricting how doctors provide gender-affirming care, that are set to take effect in late April. The rules include strict psychological therapy requirements doctors must provide in providing such care, and prohibition on such care until any other mental health issues have been treated.
Doctors and LGBTQ advocates have told The Star that Bailey’s rules would be difficult to enforce, but may create a chilling effect for both patients and doctors providing care.
In all, 54 investigative demands were made of Children’s Mercy in Kansas City, according to a letter dated March 24. A lawyer who drafted the petition on behalf of Children’s Mercy says the attorney general’s office never called him back or emailed when he tried to discuss the “excessive” information demand.
Releasing such information, the hospital argues in its court filing, would violate state and federal laws, including those designed to protect private medical decisions made between patients and doctors.
Regardless, the hospital contends Bailey has no jurisdiction to investigate healthcare companies and physicians, which are instead regulated by the Missouri Board of Healing Arts. The petition says many requests are “poorly disguised interrogatories” that have nothing to do with “gender-affirming care.”
The lawsuit acknowledges the attorney general has authority to investigate deceptive business practices, such as false advertising, under the state’s merchandise protection act “for lawful, investigative purposes.”
“But the authority to use this investigative tool has its limits,” the petition says, adding that the demand letter sent to Children’s Mercy “far exceeds those limits,” that hospitals are not regulated under that law, and that the hospital “cannot in good faith attempt to comply.”
The lawsuit filed in Jackson County comes two weeks after Planned Parenthood took a similar legal step.
On March 31, the Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri announced its own lawsuit, saying Bailey had demanded detailed information about its policies regarding gender-affirming care.
The organization called Bailey’s investigation a “sham,” “politically motivated” and transphobic.
The Star’s Kacen Bayless contributed to this report.
