51黑料

The ACLU of Missouri and Lambda Legal, which represent Southampton Community Healthcare, said in a joint statement that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey was trying to distort consumer protection laws to interfere with health care access.

鈥淏ailey鈥檚 actions are about nothing more than erasing transness from Missouri while he allows the top causes of child mortality to run rampant throughout the state,鈥� the statement said. 鈥淲e will fight this desperate overreach.鈥�

Bailey, in a lawsuit filed Friday, alleged Southampton, a clinic on Hampton Avenue in south 51黑料, provided transgender care to minor patients with 鈥渘o documented, adequate, comprehensive mental health assessment,鈥� in violation of state law.

Bailey argued the clinic violated the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, which gives the attorney general jurisdiction to police unfair and deceptive business practices.

His move on Friday creates a new front in the ongoing fight in Missouri, where a new law took effect last month restricting puberty blockers and hormone treatment for minors.

Southampton is among plaintiffs challenging the new state law, which Bailey鈥檚 office is defending in state court.

The attorney general鈥檚 office filed its lawsuit Friday as a counterclaim to the lawsuit challenging the new state law.

Bailey鈥檚 counterclaim states that since 2018, Southampton 鈥渇ailed to adopt and consistently apply a policy of ensuring that each minor patient in Missouri receives a comprehensive mental health assessment before receiving gender transition interventions.鈥�

It continued that, instead, Southampton provided care to transgender youths without such an assessment.

The lawsuit said moving forward with such interventions without verifying each Missouri minor received 鈥渁 comprehensive mental health assessment鈥� exposed the minor patients 鈥渢o high levels of risk, including the risk of unnecessary, life-altering medicalization.鈥�

鈥淧roviding gender transition interventions without first ensuring that each minor patient in Missouri receives a comprehensive mental health assessment is both unfair and deceptive under Missouri law,鈥� the counterclaim said.

Southampton鈥檚 witnesses said in testimony that the medical standard of care included a full psychological assessment, a spokeswoman for the attorney general said.

Parents, however, testified that their children 鈥渄id not receive full mental health assessments鈥� before starting treatment at Southampton, she said.

But the ACLU on Monday said that wasn鈥檛 true. 鈥淣o patients of Southampton testified at the hearing, nor did any parents of patients from Southampton,鈥� it said in a statement.

In its counterclaim, the state is seeking a declaration that the clinic violated the merchandising practices act, as well as restitution for victims and a $1,000 fine per violation of the act.

It鈥檚 not the first time Bailey has attempted to use the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act to assert jurisdiction over transgender care providers.

Bailey proposed regulations earlier this year 鈥� based on the Merchandising Practices Act 鈥� that would鈥檝e imposed strict regulations on caregivers.

Southampton also sued to stop those rules from taking effect.

The attorney general scrapped the regulations in May after a state judge put a temporary hold on them.

But at the end of August, the new law took affect, and Bailey鈥檚 office sent warning six providers, including Southampton, to comply with the new state law.

Also on the list was Washington University, which announced this month it would stop providing gender-affirming medications to all minors, even those technically still eligible because they were being treated before the law took effect.

Washington University and University of Missouri Health Care, which also stopped prescribing transgender medications to minors, said legal liability imposed by the new law was too great.

In addition to gender-affirming care, Southampton Community Healthcare also provides primary care services, treatment of sexually transmitted infections, vaccines and more, according to its website.

Jack Suntrup • 573-556-6186 jsuntrup@post-dispatch.com