The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a report created by a Focus on the Family affiliate that claims transgender medical procedures have no basis in fact and offer no benefits but are instead part of a vast medical fraud that hospitals exploited to enrich themselves.
“How was this madness allowed to fester under America’s hospital system?” asks the “Wolves in White Coats” report, which was created by the Center for Christian Virtue, Focus on the Family’s activist partner in Ohio. “This report concludes that a litany of political and financial incentives led providers to offer, and indeed urge, the prescription of sex-rejection drugs and surgeries for minors.”
A companion video from HHS says parents have been “misled by activists, physicians and mental health practitioners” who were motivated by “a potent combination of twisted political ideology, social pressure, and most upsetting, greed.”
Brian Christine (Official HHS Photo by Amy Rossetti)
The result is “a dark world of deception, medical malpractice, fraud and stolen innocence,” said Brian Christine, assistant secretary for health. Christine is a Catholic doctor and unsuccessful Alabama Republican candidate who previously operated a clinic specializing in penile implant procedures.
The “Wolves in White Coats” report features testimonies from eight de-transitioners who say they were pressured to pursue transgender procedures. The report does not cite a single case when such procedures were legitimate or successful, affirming Focus’ view that there’s “no such thing” as a trans person.
The report acknowledges the reality of gender dysphoria — when people say their gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth — but says the way to address it is only through counseling that enables them to accept their assigned sex.
A shorter companion video, “Wolves in White Coats: Luke’s Story,” featuring one of the de-transitioners, Luke Healy, was produced by HHS and the Center for Christian Virtue, which calls itself “Ohio’s largest Christian public policy organization with a growing national influence.”
The “Luke’s Story” video highlights a website which is operated by Center for Christian Virtue, not HHS, and claims there’s a “multimillion-dollar industrial complex mutilating America’s children for profit.” The website solicits donations to CCV.
The report and videos claim transgender procedures are inherently fraudulent.
The report and videos claim transgender procedures are inherently fraudulent and that greedy medical groups’ use of “false diagnosis coding for puberty blocking prescriptions has led to over $47 million in fraudulent billing.” Citizens are urged to report the fraud to the Department of Justice or other law enforcement entities “for possible violations of federal law.”
“The DOJ is now investigating nearly 200 clinics for fraud,” says Center for Christian Virtue.
“It turns out that convincing vulnerable children to reject their gender can create patients for life, earning hospitals tens of thousands of dollars in additional revenue per child,” said Vice President JD Vance in a post promoting the “Wolves” report.
The Center for Christian Virtue is one of nearly 40 state-based groups that make up the Family Policy Alliance, which says it is “the hub of the pro-family movement — equipping citizens, churches and elected officials to protect children and defend parents’ rights.”
Focus on the Family founder James Dobson launched the first Focus-affiliated groups in the 1980s to turn his conservative family values into legislation in the states. “The church is the most powerful — and most underused — force in American public life,” says FPA.
As BNG previously reported, FPA has taken the lead on state legislation in dozens of states limiting transgender procedures and sports participation. The views promoted by Focus on the Family, CCV and the Trump administration ignore the medical advice of those working in the fields of psychology and gender care. Instead, numerous studies have found gender-affirming care is dramatically effective in reducing suicide rates among transgender individuals.
CCV’s long history of divisive rhetoric on LGBTQ laws and other issues is one reason that CCV joins Focus and Family Research Center on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of hate groups.
Contributors to the “Wolves in White Coats” report include the Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative group that has fought trans rights and government-funded parental leave.
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