American Academy of Pediatrics Article Says Laws Banning Trans ‘Care’ for Kids is ‘Medical Neglect’ 

Emily Georges, Emily C.B. Brown, and Rachel Silliman Cohen of the Seattle Children’s Hospital published a recent article  in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), arguing that laws safeguarding minors from life-altering hormone treatments and disfiguring surgery “amounts to state-sanctioned medical neglect and emotional abuse.”

The December article urged a “reframing” of the “discussion” surrounding such laws.

Further underscoring their agenda, one of the article’s subjects is listed as Child Abuse and Neglect. Additionally, the search keywords for topics are child abuse, emotional abuse, gender, neglect, reframing, and gender identity.

The writers preface the article by saying they want to “refute the idea that gender-affirming care (GAC) [sic] is child maltreatment” and also  “demonstrate how withholding GAC is harmful to children and amounts to state-sanctioned medical neglect and emotional abuse.”

Lifesite reports: 

Referencing what the article calls “a dangerous trend of transphobia and prejudice toward transgender and gender diverse (TGD) children,” i.e. laws that reaffirm biological reality, protect girls’ sports and spaces, and prohibit mutilating surgeries for minors, the writers argued that the laws “punish caregivers and physicians when they choose to support children.”

“They deny children access to routine health care that has been shown to decrease dramatically high rates of suicide and depression for TGD youth,” the authors said.

Transgender identification itself — which prominent leaders in the transgender medical field have acknowledged can be tied to “social contagion” — is indeed associated with astronomically high rates of suicide and suicidal ideation. Research published in March 2022 found that 82% of people who identify as transgender “have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth.”

In a response published to the article, assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry
Kathleen McDeavitt slammed the premise.

McDeavitt wrote, “The authors state that GAC ‘does not cause harm’ and ‘decreases many negative health outcomes, including rates of depression.'”
“No relevant citations are provided for this claim. Although youth GAC has the support of the professional medical community in the United States,that does not mean there is no risk of harm.”
“Infertility, lack of development of genital tissue, problems with sexual functioning, psychosocial/cognitive delay, decrease in bone mineral density accrual, and the known side effect profiles of estrogen and testosterone (e.g., thrombotic events, cardiovascular disease, etc.) are all potential risks associated with the hormonal agents used in youth GAC.”
She adds, “Later in the paper, the authors reiterate that ‘GAC…entirely mitigates the increased risk of depression and suicidal ideation.'”

“In fact, there are multiple clinical research studies looking at hormonal treatment in TGD youth in which depression outcome measures did not significantly improve over time. In the largest such study, the depression outcome measure actually significantly worsened after initiation of hormonal treatment. It is also worth noting that suicidality research in this field is decidedly mixed.” 

“It is important for the health and well-being of children and adolescents in the United States that loving and supportive parents not be unjustly criminalized. However, this perspectives paper paints a complex and controversial issue as simplistic, and depicts circumspect approaches to care (i.e., any type of management that does not involve using hormonal interventions in TGD adolescents) as ‘abuse.’”

In 2022, comments leaked from the AAP by a whistleblower showed the academy’s efforts to silence their inquiries by those concerned with the long-term ramifications of “gender-affirming” care.

The group a motion from five physicians that called for a “rigorous systematic review” to reconsider the policy on treating children with gender dysmorphia and also blocked the ability for members to comment on the resolution.

The Daily Mail reported that one physician complained members could “no longer trust the AAP” due to the resolution being “removed” and stated that “debate on the matter was silenced egregiously.”

Another physician remarked, “There is NO open dialogue on these medical treatments by the AAP. “Input from the membership MUST occur.”

 

Thanks for sharing!