Following the outcry, Walsh announced in a tweet that he and Tennessee state officials would be working on legislation that will “shut down Vanderbilt’s child gender transition program and ban the practice in the state.”
Vanderbilt physicians called trans surgeries ‘huge moneymakers’
The comments in question were made by two faculty members, including Dr. Shayne Taylor, a university professor and a physician at the Vanderbilt Clinic for Transgender Health, as part of the Nashville school’s Medicine Grant Rounds lectures from 2018-2019.
In the video, Taylor called transgender surgeries “huge moneymakers.”
“Female-to-male chest reconstruction can bring in $40,000,” Taylor says at one point. “It actually makes money for the hospital.”
Speaking of female-to-male “bottom surgeries,” Taylor says they are “huge moneymakers” and cost up to $100,000.
Women who undergo bottom surgeries, or phalloplasty, must first have a hysterectomy and the vagina may also be removed. On average, it takes a patient 12 to 18 months to heal from a phalloplasty.
Other faculty members in the video said that for doctors who object to performing such procedures out of their religious beliefs or convictions will “have to realize that that is problematic.”
Law professor Dr. Ellen Clayton said that even if the university may have to accommodate doctors’ religious beliefs, “saying that you’re not going to do something because of your religious beliefs is not without consequence.”
Following the videos going viral on Twitter, the hospital issued a statement saying the comments “misrepresent[ed] facts about the care the Medical Center provides to transgender patients.”
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“VUMC requires parental consent to treat a minor patient who is to be seen for issues related to transgender care, and never refuses parental involvement in the care of transgender youth who are under age 18,” the statement added.
The hospital was not immediately available for a comment when CNA reached out Friday evening.
CNA reporter Joe Bukuras contributed to this story.
Edie Heipel is a former Political Correspondent for CNA's Washington, D.C. bureau. She previously worked in communications for Center for Renewing America, served in the Trump White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and has been a contributor to various outlets including The Federalist and The Charlotte Lozier Institute. She is a graduate of Wheaton College.