The governor of Tennessee is calling for an investigation into Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Pediatric Transgender Clinic following viral tweets exposing alarming attitudes towards transgender surgeries and procedures for children.
Daily Wire host Matt Walsh shared Tuesday afternoon that his team has been investigating the transgender clinic, claiming that “Vanderbilt drugs, chemically castrates, and performs double mastectomies on minors.”
In one video posted by Walsh, which has since gone viral, Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Clinic for Transgender Health physician Dr. Shayne Taylor describes how she persuaded the hospital to “get into the gender-transition game,” as Walsh said. The doctor emphasizes that gender transition is a “big moneymaker.”
“The female-to-male bottom surgeries, these are huge moneymakers,” Taylor says in the video.
“They make money,” she adds of the transgender surgeries. “They make money for the hospital.”
Taylor did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal.
Walsh also posted videos purportedly showing Dr. Ellen Clayton, a Vanderbilt health law expert, warning staff that “conscientious objections” to transition surgeries are “problematic” and that those who attempt to avoid participating in such surgeries due to their religious beliefs will face “consequences.”
“If you are going to assert conscientious objection, you have to realize that that is problematic,” Clayton said. “You are doing something to another person, and you are not paying the cost for your belief. I think that is a … real issue.”
Clayton would not weigh in for The Daily Signal on her remarks. “No,” she responded, when asked to comment on the videos.
“Vanderbilt got into the gender-transition game, admittedly in large part, because it is very financially profitable,” Walsh said as he concluded his thread. “They then threatened any staff members who objected, and enlisted a gang of trans activists to act as surveillance in order to force compliance.”
“They now castrate, sterilize, and mutilate minors, as well as adults, while apparently taking steps to hide this activity from the public view,” he added. “This is what ‘health care’ has become in modern America.”
Walsh’s expose prompted Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, to call for an investigation into the matter.
“The ‘pediatric transgender clinic’ at Vanderbilt University Medical Center raises serious moral, ethical, and legal concerns,” Lee told The Daily Wire. “We should not allow permanent, life-altering decisions that hurt children or policies that suppress religious liberties, all for the purpose of financial gain. We have to protect Tennessee children, and this warrants a thorough investigation.”
Tennessee Republican congressional candidate Chuck Fleischmann echoed the governor’s remarks.
“The news uncovered by @MattWalshBlog is incredibly disheartening and completely unacceptable,” he said. “Tennessee children deserve better than what’s happening at VUMC, and I stand alongside Governor @BillLeeTN in demanding a thorough investigation.”
Vanderbilt University Medical Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal. The center’s Pediatric Transgender Clinic has taken down its website page following backlash over Walsh’s findings.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., also weighed in Tuesday evening on the news, saying that she was “shocked” by what she saw in the videos.
“We would hope that VUMC would make better decisions,” she added. “There is nothing healthy about mutilating the bodies of minor children. We need an investigation into VUMC putting profits ahead of children immediately.”
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