Reuters has removed a story about gender confirmation surgery, saying it included problematic data.
The public relations firm representing the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) — which generated the data in the report — took responsibility, saying it supplied Reuters with data the ASPS did not want released.
Yesterday, Reuters pulled its version of a widely-reported story about an increase in such surgeries in the U.S. (Later, it pulled the withdrawal notice as well, only to make it reappear at a different URL.)
The story, originally posted just after midnight yesterday, reported a 19 percent increase in those procedures from 2015 to 2016, based on data provided the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). Around 1 pm US Eastern time that day, Reuters put up a withdrawal notice in place of the original story: