By Edie Heipel
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 19, 2022 / 16:56 pm
After over a week of intense backlash, Boston Children’s Hospital removed language from their website that said the hospital’s youth gender program offered irreversible, sterilizing genital surgeries for patients as young as 17.
Until August 12, the hospital stated that to qualify for a vaginoplasty, patients must be “at least 17 years old.”
But after the hospital’s own videos describing these gender procedures went viral on social media, Boston Children’s removed the reference to 17-year-olds and updated their website to say patients must be 18 years of age to qualify.
The hospital also removed its entire playlist of videos featuring Boston surgeons describing the procedures on YouTube.
In one of these videos, a hospital social worker confirmed that genital surgeries at the hospital “are started at age 17 for very few…for where it’s really appropriate.”
Hospital “trying to cover up” surgeries on minors
Chris Elston, widely known as “Billboard Chris,” is one activist and father of two who helped highlight Boston Children’s gender program on Twitter in the first place.
Elston, who travels across North America taking a stand against transgender ideology and how it harms children, told CNA Friday that the website reversal proves the hospital is “trying to cover up that they performed genital surgeries on minors.”
“Why are they hiding their videos, changing their website, and lying to the media?” he asked.
Elston noted Boston Children’s adherence to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) guidelines on gender surgeries for children, which the hospital admits on its website.
“The new WPATH Standards of Care call for womb removal and castration of 17-year-olds,” Elston said, pointing to the association's updates on how early sex-change surgeries can be performed on minors.
WPATH’s new guidelines state that hospitals can begin offering “most genital surgeries starting at age 17, including womb and testicle removal.”
Hospital and media “condemn attacks” on gender program
On Aug. 16, Boston Children’s issued a public statement denying that the gender program provides genital surgeries for 17-year-olds and condemned the backlash the hospital has received since the videos went viral.
Citing “hostile” threats based on “misinformation,” the hospital wrote, “We condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms, and we reject the false narrative upon which they have been based.”
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President and CEO of the hospital, Kevin Churchwell, sent an email to the entire hospital staff on Friday referring to the outcry as “false claims” and “hateful commentary.”
Massachusetts Attorney General Rachael S. Rollins issued a press release Aug. 17 saying her administration was investigating “alleged threats” made to the hospital’s gender program, classifying them as “hate crimes.”
“I will not sit idly by and allow hate-based criminal activity to continue in our District,” Rollins said.
Boston Children’s Hospital did not respond to CNA’s request for comment at the time of publishing.
