There are scandals that embarrass governments. And then there are scandals that expose something much darker — the willingness of institutions to lie, manipulate, and exploit children while siphoning taxpayer money to do it.

The exclusive reporting from Townhall’s Kyle Olson this week should shake every American parent awake. The story reveals that operators inside a New Mexico school-based clinic openly discussed rebranding “gender-affirming care” in order to avoid federal scrutiny and continue operating under the radar.

Not reconsidering the practice.

Not pausing to review the ethics.

Changing the label so the money keeps flowing and the questions stop coming.

That is not medicine.

According to the undercover footage described in Olson’s report, a clinic worker explained that the facility was careful about how it described its services and how it referred patients for medical interventions that the clinic itself was not technically permitted to perform.

Translation: if we can’t do the procedure here, we’ll quietly send the kids somewhere else that can.

And we’ll make sure the paperwork doesn’t raise any red flags in Washington.

This is the kind of scheme that would make Minnesota’s now-infamous welfare fraud scandal look almost amateurish by comparison. In Minnesota, the fraudsters at least pretended to run a legitimate program before siphoning millions in federal dollars.

But what appears to be happening in New Mexico is even........

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