Vanderbilt University Medical Center has indefinitely suspended gender-affirming surgeries for minor patients while it reviews “new recommendations.”
The move comes after Tennessee lawmakers called for an investigation after a report from conservative activist Matt Walsh was released in September. The state’s Republican leaders sent a letter to the medical center last week requesting all gender-transitioning surgeries on minors be placed on hold.
Republican Tennessee state Rep. Jason Zachary posted a letter he received from VUMC’s Chief Health System Officer, Dr. C. Wright Pinson, to his Twitter account.
“On September 6, 2022, WPATH published a new version of its recommendations to health care professionals for treatment of transgender persons, known as SOC-8,” the university said in a statement on Twitter.
It continued, “We are pausing gender affirmation surgeries on patients under age 18 while we complete this review, which may take several months.”
Please see Vanderbilt Medical’s response to the @tnhousegop.
VUMC has agreed to pause gender transition surgeries on minors as well as honor religious objectors. https://t.co/xXlbSaAOMS pic.twitter.com/4G8laJfQfY— Rep. Jason Zachary (@JasonZacharyTN) October 7, 2022
According to the letter, VUMC opened its Transgender Health Clinic in 2018 to provide care to transgender individuals, widely considered an underserved population regarding healthcare. Of those patients, only an average of five per year are underage. However, all of them were over the age of 16 and had parental consent.
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