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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is now permitted to entry affected person paperwork from Planned Parenthood that might probably expose whether or not the clinic has provided puberty blockers and transgender surgical procedures to kids.
St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer decided final week that Missouri’s Merchandising Practices Act permits Bailey to receive affected person paperwork as a result of they don’t fall below Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protections, in any other case often known as a federal legislation defending affected person privateness.
Bailey informed Fox News Digital the court docket ruling is “a huge win” in his collection of investigations into how transgender well being clinics have provided companies to minors.
However, of the three clinics Bailey has received towards in court docket, just one has handed over paperwork: Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. The different clinic – a Planned Parenthood in Great Plains – has filed an attraction to hold the paperwork non-public. The Planned Parenthood in St. Louis, which the decide has ordered to hand over information to the legal professional normal, has but to ship any of its affected person paperwork.
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Planned Parenthood is interesting the ruling of a St. Louis decide that requires it to hand over paperwork to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (inset). (Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Images/File)
“It’s extremely questionable that Planned Parenthood is actively stonewalling our investigations,” Bailey informed Fox News Digital. “I had to haul them into court in order to get a judge to force them to turn over the documents we’ve requested.”
Bailey added, “If we have to continue to go to court to protect children and uncover what went on here, that’s exactly what we’ll do.”
According to the court docket opinion, Planned Parenthood tried to block Bailey’s inquiry and argued that Bailey’s workplace “failed to show” how they had been “directly involved in his investigation” of transgender clinics.
In Stelzer’s opinion, Bailey “is investigating possible dishonesty by Plaintiff in their medical and billing practices.”
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Protesters of Kentucky Senate Bill SB150, often known as the Transgender Health Bill, cheer throughout a rally on the garden of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort on March 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
“It is clear from the statute that the Defendant has the broad investigative powers when the consumer is in possible need of protection and there is no dispute in this matter that the MMPA (Missouri Merchandising Practices Act) applies,” Stelzer stated.
Last 12 months, Bailey launched a multi-agency investigation into the Washington University Transgender Center (TGC) at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after a whistleblower went public and accused the hospital of mendacity to dad and mom of sufferers.
The AG’s inquiry into the TGC “seeks all records for all patients treated at the TGC, among other requests seeking private and protected health information. These records involve more than 1,000 patients.”
Jamie Reed stated in an affidavit submitted to the legal professional normal’s workplace in early 2023 that she was employed as a case supervisor on the kids’s hospital from 2018 till November 2022. She accused hospital staff on the transgender heart of mendacity to the dad and mom of sufferers, amongst many different points.
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State Attorney General Bailey has launched an investigation into transgender well being clinics throughout Missouri. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg through Getty Images/File)
Just just a few months later, Missouri enacted a legislation outlawing puberty blockers, hormones and gender-transition surgical procedures for minors. But the AG’s investigations from prior to the legislation will proceed throughout the state, the workplace informed Fox News Digital.
After the legislation was handed, Bailey’s workplace despatched a letter to suppliers throughout Missouri, warning them to cease offering experimental therapy on kids instantly.
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“My team will get to the bottom of how this clandestine network of clinics has subjected children to puberty blockers and irreversible surgery, often without parental consent,” Bailey stated.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Planned Parenthood for remark.
Fox News’ Adam Sabes contributed to this report.
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