Health care providers have asked the Department of Justice to investigate ongoing threats to patients seeking care that are sexist, and physicians to devise methods of treatment. such treatment.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Children’s Hospital Association wrote a joint letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday asking for an investigation into the growing number of threats being sent to hospitals, clinicians and patients.
The letter comes amid a wave of political threats and violence against gender-affirming childcare providers.
Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts has faced harassment, including bomb threats, for weeks. Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, was the subject of a conservative media campaign protesting their LGBTQ clinic “mutilating” children. Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are amplifying the allegations and calling for an investigation into the hospital’s transgender healthcare services.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) recently signed a bill that would make OU Health, one of the largest health systems in the Early State, ineligible for the state to distribute COVID-19 federal funding because It provides gender-affirming treatments for young adults. OU Health responded by announcing it would be reducing services.
The result of such controversies is a growing threat to the hospitals and clinicians who work there.
“From Boston to Akron [Ohio] from Nashville to Seattle, children’s hospitals, academic health systems, and physicians are being targeted and threatened for providing evidence-based health care,” the letter from Nashville said. supplier group said. “These attacks not only make it difficult and dangerous for these care-providing organizations and practices to disrupt many other services for families seeking care.”
Hospitals have had to start locking doors because of bomb threats, dramatically increasing security for facilities and clinicians facing death threats, and even moving online appointments Moving on to virtual visits to protect patients and staff.
“Whether it is infants in intensive care, children receiving cancer treatment, or families receiving compassionate care for their transgender youth, all patients seeking treatment deserve it. deserve the care they need without fearing for their personal safety,” American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Moira Szilagyi said in a press release. “We cannot stand by as threats of violence against our members and their patients proliferate without much consequence.”
The groups also called on major tech companies to take action against violent online rhetoric and misinformation about gender affirmative treatment. AMA, American Academy of Pediatrics, and Children’s Hospital Association want Twitter, TikTok and Facebook parent company Meta to better work together to combat misinformation related to gender-affirming care and removing language violence refers to specific premises.
The threats to Boston Children’s Hospital arose after the conservative account “Libs of TikTok” posted a video on Twitter of a doctor talking about sexist uterus cases. The account, which has 1.4 million followers, claims the hospital performed these surgeries on minors – a claim Boston Children’s Hospital denies.
The “Libs of TikTok” posts are still on Twitter. The social media company issued a seven-day suspension to the account for hateful behavior, ending this week. The account has since targeted a clinic offering sex care at Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland, Maine.
In Nashville, Matt Walsh from the conservative website Daily Wire published an article accusing Vanderbilt University Medical Center of profiting by “mutilating” children. The report led to calls for an investigation into the academic medical center of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) and the vast majority of Republicans in the state legislature. TV host Tucker Carlson echoes this sentiment, whose nightly show reaches about 4.5 million people.
“As doctors, we condemn groups that promote hate-motivated intolerance and malicious misinformation that can lead to serious real-world violence and extremism. and jeopardize patient health outcomes,” said AMA President Jack Resneck Jr. said in a news release..
