AMHERST — Recent threats and attacks made against children’s hospitals providing what is known as gender-affirming care should be investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a letter issued by state Rep. Mindy Domb, D-Amherst.
Domb, who also represents Pelham and the first precinct in Granby, is calling on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to pursue an investigation into these criminal matters, noting that families should be able to go to their medical providers for life-saving consultation, care and treatment.
“Patients and families should be able to access the medical care they need and deserve without fear of violence,” Domb wrote in her letter. “Physicians, nurses, social workers and other medical providers and hospital staff need to be able to care for their patients and work without fear or threat of bodily harm.”
Domb’s letter is in unison with similar appeals from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Children’s Hospital Association in a letter they sent to Garland earlier this month.
The letter comes as a Westfield woman was recently indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with a hoax bomb threat made against Boston Children’s Hospital.
Catherine Leavy, 37, was indicted on one count of making a false bomb threat and one count of intentionally conveying false or misleading information that a bomb was on the way to the hospital, which houses the Gender Multispecialty Service program, the first major healthcare program in the United States to focus on gender-diverse and transgender adolescents.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
