Opinion: HHS report raises questions about UNM Children's gender-affirming care

'[The University of New Mexico] had worked really hard when the law came into effect in Texas to make it possible for people to come.' That's how Dr. Molly McClain — the physician who runs the public university's Deseo clinic for so-called 'gender-affirming care' — described her hospital's response after Texas banned medical gender transition for minors in 2023. In the years since, New Mexico has emerged as a regional destination for youth gender medicine, with a waitlist for surgical and hormonal transition. "[We're] living in a state like New Mexico that allows this to still happen and has protected [pediatric gender transition] by law,' said one of the clinic's unit directors. But a new federal report should prompt New Mexicans to ask: What, precisely, have their tax dollars been funding at the state's premier pediatric institution? The report, titled 'Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of 'Gender Medicine,'' was released this month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, exposing how youth gender medicine became a lucrative industry that preyed on children going through mental health struggles — altering their bodies surgically and hormonally based on no scientific or medical evidence whatsoever. This type of medicalization, sold as 'treatment,' can have serious consequences, as the report documents by using real stories of detransitioners — people who medically transitioned and suffered the consequences — who have gone through this process throughout the country. Take Layla Jane's story: Given puberty blockers at the age of 12, a double mastectomy at the age of 13, and testosterone shortly after by Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, Jane — who is now in her early 20s and began detransitioning at the age of 17 — continues to experience serious side effects. 'She cannot undo her surgery, nor can she reverse the permanent changes to her voice. She lives with joint pain, urinary dysfunction, and daily nerve damage,' says the report. 'To this day, her hips and knees crack painfully. She now manages her chronic pain with over-the-counter medication and hot baths. She missed out on formative teenage experiences, withdrawing socially and completing much of high school through independent study.' Clementine Breen — who encountered the idea that she could change genders at the age of 12 after having been a victim of sexual abuse — was also given puberty blockers, testosterone and a double mastectomy, all by the age of 14 at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Per the report, 'Breen continues to experience complications as a result of her medicalization. She has irregular, untrackable menstrual cycles, severe cramps and hormonal instability, chest pain during menstruation, and vaginal atrophy requiring topical estrogen. An OB-GYN told her there is no established care plan for patients with her medical history.' Both of these girls' parents, along with those of many transgender-identifying children, were told that their daughters would kill themselves if they were not affirmed in their gender identity. The report shows that the motivations behind this malpractice have been financial as well as ideological. Youth gender clinics quickly became money-makers in pediatrics, which is usually low-paying relative to other medical specialties because kids, thankfully, usually get better from whatever conditions they're facing. In youth gender medicine, however, there are appointments upon appointments, surgeries, correction for surgeries and lifelong hormones, all creating lifelong patients. These clinics were willing to commit outright fraud to this end, submitting claims under generic "endocrine disorder, unspecified" codes rather than a gender-related diagnosis, which insurance would not otherwise have paid for. The report quotes Fenway Health, one of the country's most prominent gender clinics and a close academic affiliate of Harvard Medical School, telling patients outright that it will "sometimes use another, more vague diagnosis code if it is on your list" — while acknowledging in the same breath that "it is not legal for us to use codes that may be considered clinically inaccurate under the Federal False Claims Act." This is happening in New Mexico, right under the noses of taxpayers who have no idea what their funds are going toward. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a "shield law" in 2023 that bars state agencies from cooperating with out-of-state subpoenas or extradition requests tied to such care, on top of a companion law protecting gender medicine providers from civil or criminal liability. But to the extent that this is all enabling outright fraud — and fraud that often results in irreversible damage for vulnerable patients who are children incapable of consent — how is New Mexico going to respond? The national spotlight is turning toward the hospitals that helped build the pediatric gender-medicine industry that has abused children to enrich themselves. New Mexico should turn that spotlight on itself, before someone else does it for the state. Erica Ramirez is a New Mexico Voices Las Cruces chapter leader and Independent Women's Network member. Neeraja Deshpande is a policy analyst at Independent Women and a senior contributor to IW Features.