Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Threats Against Gender Care Suppliers Prompt Calls For DOJ Action
Axios: Gender-Affirming Care Threats: Medical Groups Urge DOJ, Social Media Action
Three major medical groups sent a letter to the Justice Department Monday asking it to investigate increasing threats of violence against children's hospitals and physicians that provide gender-affirming care to trans youth. (Ravipati, 10/3)
The 19th: Medical Groups Call On DOJ To Investigate Threats Against Gender-Affirming Care
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the Children’s Hospital Association urged the department “to investigate the organizations, individuals, and entities coordinating, provoking, and carrying out bomb threats and threats of personal violence against children’s hospitals and physicians across the U.S.” Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee (VUMC), and Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio have all recently received social media threats after far-right influencers condemned gender-affirming programs offered by the hospitals and spread misinformation on their practices. This has brought both scrutiny — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, formally called for an investigation into Vanderbilt’s practices — and threats of violence — a local woman was charged with making a fake bomb threat to the Boston Children’s Hospital. (Rummler, 10/3)
The Hill: Medical Groups Call On DOJ To Investigate Threats Targeting Gender-Affirming Care
Medical associations on Monday also called on Twitter, TikTok and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, to increase efforts to prevent disinformation on their platforms and take “bolder action” when false information is shared about physicians and hospitals. (Migdon, 10/3)
In other news about health care for transgender people —
Kansas City Star: Can Pharmacies Deny Trans Patients Testosterone In Missouri?
In April, Kenny Caldwell walked into a Costco pharmacy in Kansas City to pick up their monthly medication. They walked out empty-handed. “The pharmacist was like, well, we’re not willing to take that risk. You’ll have to go somewhere else,” they recalled. “It just felt (like) it was very much a trans thing… I definitely felt like it was against me, specifically.” Caldwell is a nonbinary person who takes testosterone as part of their gender-affirming healthcare. (Wallington, 10/4)
Stat: The Story Of The Nation's First Clinic For Gender-Affirming Surgery
Nearly 60 years ago, Johns Hopkins Hospital opened a first-of-its-kind clinic to provide gender-affirming surgery. The Gender Identity Clinic blazed a new trail, with more than a dozen new clinics opening across the country in the decade that followed. (Gaffney, 10/3)
