Leading Medical Groups Demand Biden Justice Department and Tech Platforms Crack Down on Reporters Exposing Child Gender Surgeries, Puberty Blockers

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Well, it worked for the National School Board Association. Leading medical organizations the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association released a letter Monday addressed to Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding action to investigate and crack down on reporters who have exposed hospitals across the country for performing gender surgery on children as young as 14 and 15 while also giving puberty blocking chemicals to children.

The letter also demands tech platforms Twitter, TikTok and Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) crack down on the reporters’ accounts.


Boston Children’s Hospital received two hoax bomb threats since late August after reports about underage gender surgery and chemical puberty blockers went viral.

LibsofTikTok, who has reported extensively on doctors and hospitals promoting (and recruiting children for) gender surgery and chemical puberty blockers, was recently suspended by Twitter for a week for “hateful conduct”–one of several suspensions this year of that account by Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Reporter Christopher Rufo posted a copy of the letter (text posted further below), saying, ” The American Medical Association is asking Big Tech and the Department of Justice to censor, deplatform, investigate, and prosecute journalists who question the orthodoxy of radical gender surgeries for minors, arguing that public criticism is “disinformation.”…This is now the Left’s playbook: last year, the National School Board Association, Department of Justice, and F.B.I. worked together to label parents who opposed critical race theory “domestic terrorists.” They want to stifle dissent, suppress speech, and criminalize opposition.”

“The morality of this situation is blindingly clear: “Threatening hospitals is wrong. Censoring journalists is wrong. Criminalizing political opposition is wrong. Surgically removing a child’s genitalia is wrong.”…If “gender-affirming care” is so good, the activists and doctors who promote it—and profit from it—should defend their practices in the realm public opinion. In a democracy, everyone gets to weigh in on important issues, not just regime-approved apparatchiks.”

LibsofTikTok responded, “They want to prosecute us for posting publicly available information from various hospital websites. These are the people who call Republicans fascists.”

Press release by the AMA:

Today, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Medical Association (AMA) and Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) unite in support of physicians and hospitals who have been threatened and attacked in recent months.

The groups sent a letter (PDF) to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Department of Justice to investigate the increasing threats of violence against physicians, hospitals and families of children for providing and seeking evidence-based gender-affirming care. The organizations also call on technology platforms to do more to stop the rhetoric that often incites threats or acts of violence and has led to harassment campaigns across the country, much of it directed at children’s hospitals and the physicians and staff who work there.

“Whether it’s newborns receiving intensive care, children getting cancer treatments or families accessing compassionate care for their transgender adolescents, all patients seeking treatment deserve to get the care they need without fear for their personal safety,” said AAP President Moira Szilagyi, MD, PhD, FAAP. “We cannot stand by as threats of violence against our members and their patients proliferate with little consequence. We call on the Department of Justice to investigate these attacks and social media platforms to reduce the spread of the misinformation enabling them.”

The AAP and AMA collectively represent more than 270,000 physicians and medical students and CHA represents more than 220 children’s hospitals across the country. The groups wrote to Attorney General Garland urging “swift action to investigate and prosecute all organizations, individuals, and entities responsible.”

“Individuals in all workplaces have the right to a safe environment, out of harm’s way and free of intimidation or reprisal,” said AMA President Jack Resneck Jr., MD. “As physicians, we condemn groups that promote hate-motivated intolerance and toxic misinformation that can lead to grave real-world violence and extremism and jeopardize patients’ health outcomes. The AMA will continue to work with federal, state and local law enforcement officials to develop and implement strategies that protect hard-working, law-abiding physicians and other health care workers from senseless acts of violence, abuse and intimidation.”

In addition to the letter to the Department of Justice, the groups call on Twitter, TikTok and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, to do more to prevent coordinated campaigns of disinformation. The organizations ask the platforms to take bolder action when false information is shared about specific institutions and physicians. They also urge social media companies to enforce safety and hateful conduct policies to stop the endangerment of patients, families, physicians and health care staff.

“We are committed to providing safe, supportive and inclusive health care environments for each and every child and family, and the clinicians and staff who are dedicated to caring for children,” said CHA President Amy Wimpey Knight. “Threats and acts of violence are not a solution, nor a substitute, for civil dialogue about issues of a child or teen’s health and wellbeing. At CHA, we are committed to working across sectors to prevent misleading and inflammatory comments that result in threats to those caring for patients.”

The groups wrote in their letter to Attorney General Garland, “Our organizations are dedicated to the health and well-being of all children and adolescents. We are committed to the full spectrum of patient care—from prevention to critical care. We stand with the physicians, nurses, mental health specialists, and other health care professionals who provide evidence-based health care, including gender-affirming care, to children and adolescents.”

The letter:

October 3, 2022
The Honorable Merrick Garland
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Garland,

On behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Children’s
Hospital Association, collectively representing more than 270,000 physicians and more than 220
children’s hospitals across the country, we write to urge you 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.

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From Boston to Akron to Nashville to Seattle, children’s hospitals, academic health systems, and
physicians are being targeted and threatened for providing evidence-based health care. These attacks
have not only made it difficult and dangerous for institutions and practices to provide this care, they
have also disrupted many other services to families seeking care. In one hospital, a new mother was
prevented from being with her preterm infant because the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was
on lockdown due to a bomb threat. Children’s hospitals across the nation have substantially increased
security in addition to working with local and federal law enforcement, both on their main hospital
campuses as well as across their ambulatory delivery sites, in order to ensure the safety of patients,
families, and medical staff who work there. In addition, some providers have needed 24/7 security.
Children’s hospitals and their medical staffs continue to face increased threats via social media –
including to their personal accounts. Coupled with harassing emails, phone calls, and protestors at
health care sites, there is elevated and justifiable fear among families, patients, and staff.

These coordinated attacks threaten federally protected rights to health care for patients and their
families. The attacks are rooted in an intentional campaign of disinformation, where a few high-profile
users on social media share false and misleading information targeting individual physicians and
hospitals, resulting in a rapid escalation of threats, harassment, and disruption of care across multiple
jurisdictions. Our organizations have called on technology companies to do more to prevent this practice
on digital platforms, and we now urge your office to take swift action to investigate and prosecute all
organizations, individuals, and entities responsible.

Attacks against health care institutions that threaten violence, intimidation, and physical harm have left
hospitals, staff, and their communities shaken. Providers of evidence-based gender-affirming health
care and their colleagues are facing increased stress and fear on top of the conditions they have faced
while working on the frontlines of a global pandemic for nearly three years. Families seeking care at
these institutions as well as our those providing their care fear for their personal safety in the wake of
these attacks.

Our organizations are dedicated to the health and well-being of all children and adolescents. We are
committed to the full spectrum of patient care–from prevention to critical care. We stand with the
physicians, nurses, mental health specialists, and other health care professionals providing evidencebased health care, including gender-affirming care, to children and adolescents.
On behalf of the patients and families we serve and the physicians we represent, we thank you for your
attention to our request.

Sincerely,

American Academy of Pediatrics
American Medical Association
Children’s Hospital Association

More from Christopher Rufo and LibsofTikTok: “The same people who scream “censorship” when a children’s library removes a copy of “Gender Queer” are now cheering for the F.B.I. to prosecute journalists who criticize “gender-affirming care.”

“Hospital: We give kids puberty blockers and perform double mastectomies on minors. Conservatives: This hospital gives kids puberty blockers and performs double mastectomies on minors. The Left: Prosecute & deplatform these conservatives for publicizing the hospital’s services!”

Two examples of reporting the medical groups want the federal government and tech platforms to suppress:

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Kristinn Taylor
Kristinn Taylor has contributed to The Gateway Pundit for over ten years. Mr. Taylor previously wrote for Breitbart, worked for Judicial Watch and was co-leader of the D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com. He studied journalism in high school, visited the Newseum and once met David Brinkley.

You can email Kristinn Taylor here, and read more of Kristinn Taylor's articles here.

 

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