Nonprofit requests communications between Do No Harm, Missouri lawmakers related to transgender surgery bill
The American Civil Liberties Union has a new target in its fight to uphold transgender surgeries for minors: Do No Harm, the anti-woke medical group that opposes identity politics in the medical field.
On Monday, the ACLU sent a public records request to Missouri Republican lawmaker Andrew Koenig regarding the state’s SAFE Act, the 2023 law that bars doctors from performing transgender surgeries on minors. The request, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, seeks communications between Missouri lawmakers and a number of activist groups, including Do No Harm, that reference the law and other transgender-related terms, such as “sex reassignment surgery,” “sex change,” and “gender transition.”
The request marks the latest attempt from the ACLU to beat back laws in red states outlawing sex change surgeries and other transgender treatments for minors. The ACLU sued to block the SAFE Act last year but failed, prompting the law to go into effect in August. The nonprofit has challenged similar bills in Texas and Idaho, and it has also targeted state laws that bar biological men from competing in women’s sports.
The ACLU did not return a request for comment. Luz María Henríquez, a California native who became executive director of the nonprofit’s Missouri chapter in 2020, filed the Monday complaint.
Since its founding in 2022, Do No Harm has found success in its bid to “highlight and counteract divisive trends in medicine, such as ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ and youth-focused gender ideology.”
The group, which represents thousands of medical professionals, published a 2022 report on the University of Florida College of Medicine’s “anti-racism” resources, which instructed “white allies” to “assume racism is everywhere, every day” and touted the admissions office’s commitment to “equity in healthcare.” One week after the report’s release, the college scrubbed those resources from its website.
Last year, meanwhile, Do No Harm sued Pfizer over a minorities-only fellowship that barred whites and Asians from applying. Though a federal judge tossed out the suit, Pfizer opened the fellowship to applicants of all races after Do No Harm appealed the decision.
“Do No Harm is pleased that Pfizer recognizes its blatant racial discrimination is unlawful and immoral,” the group’s chair, Stanley Goldfarb, said at the time. Before founding Do No Harm, Goldfarb served as University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine associate dean. He is also the father of Free Beacon chairman Michael Goldfarb.
While the ACLU has targeted transgender treatment bans for minors across the country, most Americans support such laws. A Washington Post poll released last year found that 68 percent of U.S. adults oppose access to puberty blockers for children between the ages of 10 and 14. The poll found that 58 percent of Americans oppose access for those between the ages of 15 and 17.
