ST. LOUIS – As a new Missouri law takes effect next week that bans gender-affirming treatments for minors, the New York Times dove deep into one St. Louis pediatric transgender center facing pushback through a series of events described as a “political storm.”

In February, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office launched an investigation into the Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. A whistleblower accuses the center of using experimental drugs on children, distributing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, and giving children life-altering drugs without parental consent.

Washington University has contended that “appropriate policies and procedures” have been followed amid the investigation and claims there is no evidence of misconduct.

Months later, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed a bill into law that would ban transgender children and some adults from accessing puberty blockers, hormones, and gender-affirming surgeries. The new law is set to take effect Monday.

The New York Times, in a report from Azeen Ghorayshi, touched upon these developments and stated that staff reviewed more than 300 documents from the alleged whistleblower.

Per the NYT report, the St. Louis clinic has had appointments with dozens of patients each month as one of the few places to seek gender-affirming care within hundreds of miles. The report claims the clinic’s staff had been overwhelmed by demand leading up to its investigation.

“As demand rose, more patients arrived with complex mental health issues,” said the report. “The clinic’s staff often grappled with how best to help, documents show, bringing into sharp relief a tension in the field over whether some children’s gender distress is the root cause of their mental health problems, or possibly a transient consequence of them.”

The New York Times says some of the whistleblower’s claim were corroborated, others could not be confirmed and at least one had factual inaccuracies.

One key discussion point tackled was the role of psychological screening (or mental health tests) before treatments began. The whistleblower reportedly had a private spreadsheet called a “red flag list,” and claimed at least 60 patients were dealing with “complex psychiatric diagnoses” while seeking gender-affirming treatment, according to the New York Times report.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the clinic remains ongoing behind inquiries from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley.