The Project of the Quad Cities to provide gender-affirming care to Iowa patients
The Project of the Quad Cities in Moline will provide gender-affirming care to Iowa patients.
The Project of the Quad Cities will inherit gender-affirming care patients from the University of Iowa LGBTQ Clinic. “They were servicing 200 to 250 individuals through that, and it was all going to shut down,” Andy Rowe, Director of Healthcare Operations at The Project of the Quad Cities, said. “There are places to get it like Minneapolis, Chicago. But all of those places are also full and have waiting lists.”
The care will come at a large cost to the organization, as the clinic had trouble finding medical malpractice insurance. “When we started this, my concern was finding providers that were going to be willing to do it, because Iowa’s law really impacts the provider licensing,” Rowe said. “There’s no opiates, there’s no surgery, it’s a pretty standard clinic service. I would expect to pay around the 12 to 15 (thousand) sort of range, and the quote we got back was closer to 50.”
The Project of the Quad Cities struggled to obtain malpractice insurance to support their gender-affirming care. The inspiration to help patients came when Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed the Gender-Affirming Care Ban back in March of 2023.
Rowe wants lawmakers to look at the statistics. “Go and talk to the parents with some of these kids that are going through this or need the care,” Rowe said. “When you read the statistics that happen with kids that don’t receive gender-affirming care, who have gender dysphoria, suicide rates are at 50% or more. If I was a parent and put myself in their shoes, and I saw that, I would do whatever it took to keep my kids safe.”
Despite the high prices of insurance that the Project has had to endure to provide gender-affirming care to the people of the Quad Cities and the surrounding area, the Project says because of their donors and people who have supported them through the years, gender-affirming care in the area should be sustainable for the future. The Project says the clinic will be able to help over 70 patients.
