The Hasbro Children’s Hospital, an affiliate of Brown University Health, has removed a webpage publicizing their pediatric gender clinic services, which included puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, from its website.
The Medical Director of the Hasbro Children’s Hospital Gender and Sexuality Program, Jason Rafferty, is the lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics child sex-change policy, which supports the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries. President Trump recently signed an executive order that labels these interventions as “chemical and surgical mutilation” based on “junk science” and strips institutions pushing gender ideology of federal funding. In response to President Trump’s order, pediatric gender clinics across the country are closing their doors, including Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., and VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU.
The web page removed from Hasbro’s Children’s Hospital titled “Gender and Sexual Health Services for Children, Teens, and Young Adults” states the clinic was accepting new patients and was providing children as of January 16th, 2025, according to an internet archive. The archived page states “The Gender and Sexuality Program at Rhode Island and its Hasbro Children’s Hospital provides a safe environment, education, and access to specialty medical care drawing upon current evidence-based practices and the unique needs of each individual child.”
“The Gender and Sexuality Program at Hasbro Children’s Hospital is accepting new pediatric, adolescent, and young adult patients.”
Brown University Health did not respond to the DCNF’s requests to confirm if the webpage had been removed as a reaction to Trump’s executive order.
The archived website page notes the clinic took an “affirmative approach” when treating gender confused children and utilized the 2018 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) sex-change policy that was heavily influenced by its medical director, Rafferty, who has played an instrumental role in shaping clinical guidance that upholds the industrial gender complex.
In addition to being the lead author of the AAP’s pediatric gender medicine policy, emails uncovered by the DCNF revealed Rafferty was part of a small group within the AAP that successfully pressured the World Professional Association of Transgender Health to remove lower age limits for sex-change surgeries in their in their influential clinical guidance, called the Standards of Care version 8.
Rafferty was also a part of the leadership team of the AAP’s Section on LGBT Health and Wellness, a group within the AAP that provides the organization with expertise and education on LGBT issues, according to an archive of its website. The DCNF obtained an email written by Rafferty in June 2022 responding to a series of questions from the powerful D.C.-based Covington and Burling law firm, which represents the AAP in litigation seeking to overturn Alabama’s ban on pediatric sex-change, about the appropriateness of pediatric sex-change. In this email, Rafferty acknowledged that puberty blockers can cause sterility in children and admitted there were no studies evaluating whether puberty suppression leads to sexual dysfunction.
“Long story short, if you start blockers early in puberty before the eggs or cells that give rise to sperm mature (essentially before someone starts to menstruate or ejaculate), then later go directly on directly to cross sex hormone, then you never allow the maturation to occur and will essentially be sterile,” wrote Rafferty.
“Sexual dysfunction: As far as I know there is no study that looks at this, and frankly it would be a difficult study to do.”
In this email Rafferty, when referring to gender exploration, told the law firm that some youth “try it out” without needing intervention.
“Do some youth ‘try it out’ – Yes, as children grow up gender exploration is a NORMAL part of development and understanding the society roles [sic] around them. Exploring one’s gender does not mean that any intervention is necessary aside from support and assuring their safety,” wrote Rafferty.
Both Rafferty and the AAP are named defendants in a lawsuit filed by detrantioner Isabelle Ayala, who was treated by Rafferty and his team at Hasbro Children’s hospital. The lawsuit states that Rafferty and his team “Lied to her and her family and coerced them into immediately sending Isabelle down their path of “gender-affirming” medicalization that has forever damaged Isabelle’s physical and mental health.” (Related: ‘True Conspiracy’: Gender Activists’ Entire Litigation Strategy Looks Like It’s Starting To Crumble)
Jason Rafferty did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to USAspending.gov, the AAP has received more than 128 million dollars in federal funding since 2020.
The DCNF asked the American Academy of Pediatrics if they would be changing their recommendations in reaction to President Trump’s executive order but they declined to provide a comment.
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