A Boston hospital that prides itself on being ‘home to the first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program in the US’ says it’s faced threats and false claims.
Boston Children’s Hospital is on the defense over its Gender Multispecialty Service Program, or GeMS, which it claims provides gender-affirming care to ‘eligible adolescents and young adults’.
The hospital has been accused, it says falsely, of performing hysterectomies to underage children as part of that care.
Much of the controversy stems from an allegation on right wing social media sensation LibsofTikTok – who was doxed as Brooklyn real estate agent Chaya Raichik – that the hospital offered such treatment, in a still public tweet.
The claims are based off of videos from the hospital’s YouTube account that discusses medical care provided to transgender patients. The video has since been removed.
The story gained traction among activists critical of gender affirming care for underage kids, even going as far as former advisor to President Trump Stephen Miller, who called it ‘monstrous’.
Podcaster David J. Harris called one of the videos ‘pure evil’ and made the claim of underage hysterectomies.
Activists Christopher Rufo and Matt Walsh also slammed the hospital, with Walsh saying: ‘Every sane and decent human being in the country must unite against it’.
Posters on right wing message boards have even allegedly called for the doctors to be ‘executed’ and to call the hospital on the phone, according to Vice.
Boston Children’s told DailyMail.com in a statement: ‘The commentary and the online attention that followed was based on the incorrect statement that Boston Children’s performs genital surgeries on minors in connection with transgender care’.
Boston Children’s Hospital prides itself on being ‘home to the first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program in the US’ says it’s faced threats and false claims
‘For hysterectomies and other genital surgeries performed as part of gender-affirming care, Boston Children’s requires a patient to be capable of consenting for themselves. Age 18 is used to reflect the standard age of majority for medical decision-making. Boston Children’s does not perform genital surgeries as part of gender-affirming care on a patient under the age of 18.’
Multiple fact-checkers, including PolitiFact and Lead Stories, both debunked the idea that they perform hysterectomies on children.
Miller at one point asked: ‘How does anyone involved in this still have a medical license?’
The video, however, does not suggest the procedures are available to underage patients.
An employee confirmed to NBC News that the hospital sent an email to employees that would direct them on how to respond to such threats.
The hospital’s statement continues: ‘We are deeply concerned by these attacks on our clinicians and staff fueled by misinformation and a lack of understanding and respect for our transgender community.’
Trans activists have said that Boston Children’s has been targeted in the past, with Lee Leveille of Health Liberation Now saying they were targeted for harassment in 2021 for providing ‘gender-affirming care’.
Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic, also called the treatment of the hospital ‘an absolute torrent of abuse’.
The FBI said it thwarted a planned cyberattack on Boston Children’s in by hackers working for the Iranian government earlier this year.
The hospital itself says it remains ‘proud’ to be the only hospital in the country providing this kind of care.