Doctors discuss gender change therapies for minors as young as 8 in undercover video

WASHINGTON (TND) — Project Veritas released the first part of an investigatory series Wednesday looking into how early in a child’s life doctors across the country are willing to treat gender-questioning youth using drugs and other interventions.

The investigation found one social worker at a pediatric medical center in Texas admitting to treating patients as young as 8-years-old using gender transition procedures.

„We do have patients who are starting [their transition] as young as eight, nine. So we do have folks on the younger side,“ Nora Scott, a licensed social worker at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, said on undercover video recording obtained by Project Veritas. „In regards to prescribing, that’s up to the prescribers discretion. They might just require a couple of appointments just to see, it might be appropriate after one,“ she continued. „It’s not something that we want to gatekeep and require someone to come see us 10 times before its prescribed.“

Project Veritas’s investigation looked at nearly 50 different clinics across eight states, and inquired about the age at which a gender dysphoric youth could be placed on puberty blockers, typically the first step before any cross-sex hormones or gender surgeries are introduced due to the side effects they can have on young bodies, particularly bone growth.

„I follow the WPATH guidelines, the World Professional Association of Transgender Health guidelines, and really what they would say is, the way to go at this age — age 10 — would be something like a puberty blocker,“ Dr. John Steever, an adolescent medicine doctor at New York City’s Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, said in a Project Veritas undercover recording. „And that really stops puberty pretty quickly so that no further development of the secondary sexual characteristics happen. So, things like, there’s no real chest development. There’s no menstruation. Things like that.“

Republican-led states have pushed to ban transgender treatments, like surgeries and drugs, for minors, but critics of these moves argue they are attacking trans youth by prohibiting them from obtaining „life saving, medically necessary“ treatment.

READ MORE: „Florida Senate passes bill banning gender change procedures for minors“

„Project Veritas has been undercover in states across the nation for months, speaking to ‚professionals‘ at more than 50 clinics responsible for transgender ‚healthcare‘ for minors,“ Project Veritas Communications Director Eric Spracklen told The National Desk (TND). „What we have found is shocking. The work done by our investigative journalists in the field cannot be understated. This is just the beginning of #TooYoung.“