A claim by Rachel Levine, the man who serves as assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that there is “no argument” regarding the value of “gender-affirming care,” those body mutilating surgeries sometimes done to children, is “deeply disturbing.”
That’s according to a statement from the Christian Medical & Dental Association, which described the problem with Levine’s recent claim, “There is no argument among medical professionals – pediatricians, pediatric endocrinologists, adolescent medicine physicians, adolescent psychiatrists, psychologist, etc. – about the value and the importance of gender-affirming care.”
That’s because he was wrong.
“This is a deeply egregious and disturbing false claim attempting to coerce the public into believing that all healthcare professionals support gender-affirming care,” said CMDA senior Vice President Jeff Barrows. “In fact, gender-affirming care, especially for minors, is not supported by the best scientific evidence and should not be promoted by the federal government.”
Democrats have turned Levine’s claim into a political talking point and even have used the allegation in court arguments already.
But the 16,000-member CMDA, the nation’s largest faith-based professional healthcare association, rejected the presumption.
“Believing it is the only option puts already at-risk youth at even greater risk,” Dr. Barrows continued. “As Christian healthcare professionals, we feel a strong obligation to provide ethical and evidence-based care for all patients, especially those struggling with gender identity, and to do so with sensitivity and compassion, consistent with the humility and love that Jesus modeled and commanded us to show all people.”
He went on, “We also have a professional obligation to question an ideology not based on scientific evidence that puts our patients in harm’s way. This blatant omission—and seemingly ignorance—of differing viewpoints by Assistant Secretary Levine is alarming and inexcusable, especially because it shows a complete disregard for the full body of medical research which offers a vastly different conclusion. Research shows that the overwhelming majority of gender dysphoric/transgender-identified youth have pre-existing mental health issues and/or neuro-developmental disabilities, notably autism spectrum disorder. These conditions predate their gender dysphoria rather than being caused by it.”
The CMDA posts online its ethics statement regarding transgender issues.
It states that attempts to radically reconstruct one’s body “surgically or hormonally for psychological indications are medically, ethically and psychologically inappropriate.”
“There is no question that gender identity issues are complex,” Barrows said. “However, medicine is being undermined by government mandates that seek to impose a new ideology by the sheer force of government power rather than unbiased examination of the scientific data. And stuck in the middle are our patients who need help. Accepting gender-affirming care as the standard of care is a prescription for bad medicine.”
WND reported that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., during Levine’s confirmation hearing, asked him about his support for the government “intervening to override a parent’s consent to give a child puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and/or amputation surgery of breasts or genitalia?”
Levine dodged the question.
The senator said most children who suffer gender dysphoria eventually become “comfortable” with their birth sex without drastic intervention. And many studies support his claim, finding that up to 94% of children with gender dysphoria eventually “grow out of it” and do not identify as transgender.
See Paul’s exchange with Levine:
Meanwhile, Joe Biden said he supports children undergoing “sex-reassignment.”
Following the science, that’s impossible, since being male or female is embedded down to the DNA level.
Earlier, as WND also reported, the Biden administration was threatening those who oppose the transgender ideology.
Those came from White House flak Jen Psaki.
About the same time, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra demanded that taxpayers cover the costs of procedures that include “cutting off kids’ genitals.”
Earlier, Fox News confirmed there are many in conflict with Levine’s claim.
The report said, “Several medical professionals told Fox News they have seen rates of gender dysphoria skyrocket among young people in recent years, but that many of their colleagues are reluctant to speak publicly against transgender ideology for fear of both professional and personal retaliation.”
The report said many medical pros were at odds with Levine’s claims, including Florida’s health officials. There state Surgeon General Joseph Lapado released information about peer-reviewed studies as well as a “lack of conclusive evidence, and the potential for long-term, irreversible effects.”
Lapado told Fox the burden to prove his “outlandish” claims rests with Levine.
Dr. William Malone, an Idaho-based assistant clinical professor of endocrinology and member of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, said the concern is over the “lack of quality evidence for the use of hormonal and surgical interventions” on children.
Malone explained, “They’re trying to make it seem that the evidence base is a done deal and is settled science, and that’s just simply not the case.”
Medical officials in Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and Finland also have urged “restraint” in Levine’s agenda.
Psaki had said, “Across the country, as we’ve talked about a bit in here, Republican elected officials are engaging in disturbing, cynical trend of attacking vulnerable transgender kids for purely partisan political reasons. Today, in Alabama, instead of focusing on critical kitchen table issues like the economy, COVID or addressing the country’s mental health crisis, Republican lawmakers are currently debating legislation that, among many things, would target trans youths with tactics that threatens to put pediatricians in prison if they provide medically necessary life-saving health care for the kids they serve.
“Just like the extreme government overreach we’ve seen in Texas, where politicians have sent state officials into the homes of loving parents to investigate them for abuse just to harass and intimidate the LGBTQI+ community, today’s vote in Alabama will only serve to harm kids. But Alabama’s lawmakers and other legislators who are contemplating these discriminatory bills have been put on notice by the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services that laws and policies preventing care that health care professionals recommend for transgender minors may violate the Constitution and the federal law.”
She threatened, “To be clear, every major medical association agrees that gender-affirming health care for transgender kids is the best practice and potentially lifesaving. All of this begs an important question: What are these policies actually trying to solve for? LGBTQI+ people can’t be erased or forced back into any closets and kids across our nation should be allowed to be who they are without the threat that their parents or their doctor could be imprisoned simply for helping them and loving them.”
The National Institutes of Health reports those who commit suicide among transgender populations ranges from 32% to 50%.
That organization explains, “The suicidal behavior and suicide attempt rates are reported to be significantly high among transgender persons compared to general population across the countries. … Forty-one percent of the transgender persons in the United States attempt for suicide at least once in their life.”
Further, WND has reported Paul McHugh, the former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins, has confirmed that 70%-80% of those who claim gender dysphoria, if left alone, outgrow those feelings after a few years.
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