U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-MN-7) said she is "appalled" that taxpayers have spent more than $200,000 for “irreversible sex change interventions” on children in Minnesota.
“I am appalled that hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being used to permanently harm children," Fischbach told WC Minnesota News. "That's why I am a cosponsor of the Protecting Resources of Taxpayers to Eliminate Childhood Transgender Surgeries Act of 2024, which will prohibit federal funds from being used for sex changes and hormone blockers for children."
“As a mother and a grandmother, I am horrified by Governor Walz’s decision to allow the courts to rip a child from a parent's arms because they will not approve of experimental and irreversible ‘gender-affirming’ care," Fischbach said. "I wholeheartedly disagree with the notion that a child is better off in the custody of the State than with parents who do not believe it is right or safe for a minor to undergo serious and traumatic elective surgery, and I certainly don’t think taxpayers should be footing the bill for it.”
Taxpayers spent more than $210,597.75 for “irreversible sex change interventions” on children in Minnesota between the years 2019 and 2023, reported Minnesota State Wire earlier this week.
That’s according to a national database released today of hospitals and medical facilities “administering irreversible sex change interventions on children in the United States” by the organization Do No Harm.
That database showed that hospitals in Minnesota saw 382 minors who were “sex change patients,” including 174 total surgery patients. These hospitals administered “hormone and puberty blockers” to 219 total children, and wrote 1,038 prescriptions. In all, it totaled $2,298,056 in total submitted charges.
At least 39 of those interventions were paid for through Managed Medicaid for a total of $130,044.24. One was paid for by Medicaid for $21,723.51, and one through Tricare, the healthcare program for current and retired military members and their families, for a sum of $58,830.
In total, taxpayers paid $210,597.75 for these interventions.
Do No Harm listed Children's Minnesota hospital among the group's "Dirty Dozen," which it describes as the “12 worst offending children’s hospitals promoting sex change treatments for minors.” That hospital performed interventions on 54 kids between 2019 and 2023.
The issue of taxpayer funding of these procedures has gained national attention as Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who is in a dead heat with former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, has openly advocated for "transgender" surgeries for illegal immigrants and prisoners.
Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), Harris' running mate, visited Children's Minnesota hospital in June 2022 to sign a bill that included funding for the facility's first inpatient mental health unit. The hospital's mental health program provides "an alternative to inpatient hospitalization for teens struggling with emotional and behavioral problems that interfere with their ability to function at home, school and in the community," according to a press release.
Walz's visit and bill signing comes almost three years after the hospital's "creation of a pediatric gender health program to provide comprehensive care to kids who identify as transgender or gender-diverse," reported TwinCities.com.
That "gender health program" is "an exclusively pediatric, multidisciplinary gender health program, and includes pediatric gender health, endocrinology and gynecology physicians," according to the hospital's website.
Walz also signed a bill in 2023 that gave Minnesota's court system the power to determine custody of a minor in cases where “the presence of a child in [the] state is for the purpose of obtaining gender-affirming health care," wrote Kara Dansky, ormer president of the U.S. chapter of Women’s Declaration International, in a commentary in The Hill. The bill also granted the courts the rights to rule on custody if a child in the state has "been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care."
The law also says that "gender-affirming care" can include medications like puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormones, as well as mental health care and "other interventions."
On the federal level, Minnesota's junior U.S. Senator, Tina Smith (D), was co-sponsor of the so-called "Trans Bill of Rights Resolution," which would, if passed, enshrine protections for trans people and "gender affirming care," according to a press release from her office.
Nationally, 13,994 children received sex change related treatments between 2019 and 2023, according to Do No Harm’s database. This includes 5,747 sex change surgeries performed on children, and 62,682 hormone and puberty blockers prescriptions written for 8,579 pediatric patients.
“At least $119,791,202 made from sex change treatments performed on minors,” reported the organization.
