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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is pictured as he answers questions at a press conference.

Source: PHOTO: WIBC

INDIANAPOLIS — Attorney General Todd Rokita has been pressing many different clinics around the state to respond to his inquiries about whether or not they provide any physical help when it comes to transgender children in the state.

This pertains to prescribing puberty blockers and even performing surgeries to physically change the gender of a child. So far the attorney general has heard nothing back from any of the clinics he suspects of providing this kind of treatment.

“I think these things are child abuse, frankly, these actions if true,” Rokita said to WIBC’s Hammer and Nigel. “Een if they come back and say that they are not doing the surgeries, that doesn’t mean they’re not referring them out to places in the country that may be doing them.”

What Rokita plans to do with this information, if he gets it, remains unclear.

“The state has a very compelling interest in protecting these young Hoosiers and their parents,” Rokita said. “And that’s why we’re collecting this data.”

Rokita spoke of several people he is working with on the issue he sees with this type of gender-affirming care. One of which he says is a woman who used to be transgender. Rokita said that she horribly regrets convincing her parents when she was a child to get a sex change operation. Rokita added that his push is about protecting children from what he says are irreversible procedures while they are young.

A bill in the Statehouse would make access to this type of treatment from clinics in Indiana to minors illegal. Many people spoke against Senate Bill 480 in a Senate committee hearing a couple of weeks ago.

“When our child came out to us as transgender when he was a teenager, he had already suffered years of severe anxiety,” said Kristina Inskeep. “If it weren’t for the support of doctors and healthcare professionals we are convinced our child may not have survived.”

“Hoosier children will suffer and die if you pass this bill,” said Inskeep’s husband Ken Inskeep.

Rokita is also looking into why there is such a push nowadays for access to gender-affirming care when there wasn’t before. The attorney general believes there is a financial interest behind it.

“There is a lot of money to be made,” Rokita said. “These surgeries, because there are multiple surgeries, each one of them costs tens of thousands of dollars. It goes on for a good part of their lives. Then there’s the upkeep surgeries. I mean you are talking upwards of $100,000 to $200,000.”

Rokita said he expects that many clinics he has reached out to have gotten lawyers and are reviewing what he is asking for in the letters of inquiry he sent out in recent weeks.