Conservative group targets Cincinnati Children's over transgender clinic

A conservative group this week launched a national campaign attacking Cincinnati Children's for the care it provides to minors at its transgender clinic.

The campaign, called "Stop the Docs," includes social media criticism challenging transgender medical care and a large billboard attached to a truck that was spotted Wednesday near the hospital. The billboard claimed Cincinnati Children's is harming children and is "#1 in OH for sex changes."

The group behind the campaign, the American Parents Coalition , was founded in March by a Virginia mom, Alleigh Marre, who has said one of her goals is to save children from "malicious political agendas."

Hospital officials and representatives of the American Parents Coalition did not immediately respond to interview requests.

The group's website described Cincinnati Children's as one of the "worst offending" hospitals in the United States for providing medication and surgery to minors who identify as transgender. The group claimed its review of insurance data, including procedure codes and drug codes indicating a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, showed the hospital had treated "396 sex change patients," including 27 who had undergone a surgical procedure.

Ohio law bars medication, surgery for transgender kids Cincinnati Children's officials did not respond to questions about surgical procedures, but the hospital is prohibited by an Ohio law passed this year from providing surgery or gender-affirming medication, such as puberty blockers, to minors.

A description of the transgender clinic on the hospital's website states that available services are limited to a medical interview, a physical examination and development of a plan, which could include referrals to a psychologist. All treatment is provided in consultation with parents and requires parental approval.

Last year, in testimony before the Ohio House regarding the anti-transgender care bill, Cincinnati Children's CEO Steve Davis said the number of children nationwide who receive medication or surgery following a diagnosis of gender dysphoria is small.

He said medical and psychological treatment is essential because transgender youth are six times more likely than their peers to be depressed and are eight times more likely to attempt suicide.

"Transgender youth face significantly higher risks," Davis said. "These children are among the most vulnerable."

In a statement about the American Parents Coalition's campaign, Marre said hospitals that treat transgender youth are motivated by profits. "Sex-change surgeries, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones are not treatments – they are interventions that create lifelong patients and customers," Marre said.

Davis pushed back on that claim in his testimony last year, arguing that treating transgender youth is costly and insurance reimbursement is low. "There is no financial incentive to provide comprehensive, gender-affirming medical care," he said.

The campaign targeting Cincinnati Children's and other children's hospitals comes a week after a divisive presidential election in which transgender issues were front and center. According to the Associated Press , Republican ads attacking support for transgender and LGBTQ rights aired more than 290,000 times on network TV.

One such ad, aired 15,000 times by President-elect Donald Trump, proclaimed that "Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you."

Few transgender youth prescribed drugs, fewer have surgery Despite the political focus on transgender issues, particularly on transgender youth, recent studies support Davis's contention that relatively few children nationwide receive medical treatment related to gender dysphoria.

A Reuters investigation two years ago found that while the number of minors between the ages of 13 and 17 who received such a diagnosis had climbed to about 42,000 in 2021, most were not treated with drugs or surgery. About 5,500 received hormone therapy or puberty blockers, Reuters found, and 282 underwent a surgical procedure.

A Harvard study this year, based on 2019 insurance data, found no surgeries were performed on minors under the age of 12.

The study concluded that U.S. surgeons are "appropriately following international guidelines around assessment and care."

The American Parents Coalition's campaign is based on data gathered by Do No Harm , a conservative group based in Virginia that says it represents physicians, nurses and other medical professionals who want to "protect healthcare from a radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology." According to 2023 tax documents , Do No Harm raised about $3 million last year to support its lobbying and advocacy efforts.

In an email statement regarding Do No Harm's data, the group's executive director, Kristina Rasmussen, said the methodology used to gather and analyze the data was conservative and likely undercounted the number of children who'd received medical treatment related to gender dysphoria.

"They have in fact performed experimental sex change procedures on minors," Rasmussen said.