FBI probes children's hospitals for 'female genital mutilation' through gender transition: report

Three children's hospitals are undergoing an FBI criminal probe for allegedly practicing "female genital mutilation" (FGM), which is banned by federal law, through surgery for gender-confused minor girls, according to a report.

Fox News said a source familiar with the investigations identified the hospitals as Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Colorado and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which the source claimed were leading providers of so-called sex change procedures for minors.

President Trump's executive order against "chemical and surgical mutilation" for minors tasked Attorney General Pam Bondi with reviewing Justice Department enforcement of the FGM law and prioritize enforcement, and Bondi issued a memo to U.S. attorneys in April to pursue such investigations. Performing FGM is a felony with up to 10 years per count in prison, she said then.

Children's Hospital Los Angeles, whose pediatrician Johanna Olson-Kennedy is one of the leading practitioners of so-called gender affirming care for minors, said earlier this month it was shutting down its pediatric gender clinic in light of "significant operational, legal and financial risks stemming from the shifting policy landscape at both the state and federal levels."

Olson-Kennedy admitted last fall to hiding the results of her 2015 federally funded study on the mental health impacts of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for youth because they didn't show improvement to mental health. She's also being sued by a former client who detransitioned.

Fox News said CHLA did not respond to "repeated requests for comment," Children’s Hospital Colorado resumed blockers and hormones for minors after a judge blocked Trump's order but claimed it has "never" performed surgeries in minors, and Boston Children's, which still offers blockers, hormones and "social transitioning" for minors and refers them to other clinics for surgery, said it hasn't received notice from the FBI. 

Medical watchdog Do No Harm praised the FBI's reported investigation, calling the three targets "laboratories where activist doctors experiment on kids." Chairman Stanley Goldfarb noted they are on its "Dirty Dozen list of worst-offending children’s hospitals promoting sex-change treatments for minors," which are tracked in its "Stop the Harm" database.