Oklahoma Children’s Hospital will stop performing “certain gender medicine services” on minors, OU Health told the Daily Caller in a statement Tuesday.
The hospital, which is part of the Oklahoma University (OU) Health system, provides a wide range of adolescent medical services, including for sexuality and gender identity issues, according to the Oklahoma Children’s Hospital website. However OU Health told the Daily Caller the current gender program is facing cuts to its available services.
“The OU Health Senior Leadership team is proactively planning the ceasing of certain gender medicine services across our facilities and that plan is already under development,” OU Health said in the statement.
The Oklahoma House of Representatives added restrictions on Monday to special session legislation that would prevent Oklahoma Children’s Hospital from performing gender surgeries on minors at any of its locations. The Oklahoma House Conference Committee approved a new version of Oklahoma bill HB1007 on Monday that would restrict the hospital’s ability to perform some gender services, including hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgeries on minors, according to the bill.
The bill’s new version prevents OU Health from using any of the $39.4 million the hospital’s new mental and behavioral health facility is set to receive from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) “for the benefit of any facility owned by the University Hospitals Authority or University Hospitals Trust performing ‘gender reassignment medical treatment’ … on children under eighteen (18) years of age.”
These treatments include “interventions to suppress the development of endogenous secondary sex characteristics … interventions to align the patient’s appearance or physical body with the patient’s gender identity, and … medical therapies and medical interventions used to treat gender dysphoria,” the bill states. (RELATED: It’s Time To Save American Children From Medical Experimentation)
Oklahoma Children’s Hospital boasts of being “the only interdisciplinary clinic in the state that provides gender-related care to patients under the age of 16 years” and of its status “as the founding member of the Gender Affirming Professionals Network (GAP-Net) that promotes collaboration among gender-affirming healthcare providers across the state.”
The hospital website states that it offers the “Roy G. Biv program,” which helps adolescent patients to “benefit” from services like “pausing puberty to further explore gender … managing gender-affirming hormone therapy … helping find surgeons who perform gender-affirming surgeries” on minors.
Screenshot of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital Gender-Affirming Treatment and Services
OU Health told the Daily Caller in a statement that the almost $40 million from the ARPA will provide “significant health benefits for Oklahomans,” including “deliver[ing] the most advanced inpatient and outpatient resources in the country for young people who need mental and behavioral health care.” OU Health further stated that their new mental health facility was never designed to perform these services.
“As the state’s flagship academic health system, OU Health remains committed to providing excellent, comprehensive medical care to all patients while following all state and federal laws and regulatory governing bodies. We appreciate our long-standing, collaborative relationship with the Legislature, and we look forward to future efforts to move our institution and our state forward,” OU Health added.
Republican Oklahoma state Rep. Kevin West said in a statement released by the Oklahoma House of Representatives that he supported the latest version of HB1007.
“I’m thankful for language in this bill that protects children from the practice of mutilation through gender reassignment medical treatment. This unbelievably harmful practice cannot be reversed, and has lasting physical and psychological consequences that can damage these children for the rest of their lives,” West said.
West, who represents Oklahoma City, said HB1007 addresses the issue of performing transgender surgeries on minors as far as the legislature is allowed during a special session. He also indicated that other members of the legislature support taking up the issue again when the regular session commences in spring 2023.
“Passing this legislation now will provide protections for children, and we can further expand those protections when we come back in the spring,” said West. “The radical Left may be making a national push to try and allow the mutilation of our children to become mainstream, but here in Oklahoma, we have to stand up for our kids and say enough is enough.”
Rep. Kevin West did not respond to the Caller’s request for comment.