GOP Senator Grills Biden’s NIH Nominee on Experimental, Irreversible Transgender Care

Madeline Leesman | October 18, 2023 5:45 PM

On Wednesday, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) pressed President Joe Biden’s nominee for director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) on so-called “gender affirming care.” As Townhall has covered, this type of care encompasses irreversible, experimental puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, and sex reassignment surgeries.

Marshall questioned Biden’s nominee, Dr. Monica Bertagnolli in a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) hearing.

“Should taxpayers fund gender reassignment experiments or research that are purely cosmetic, where you destroy healthy tissue and organs or when they use FDA-approved products off-label with significant negative irreversible impacts? This off-label use isn’t treating diseases or illnesses,” Marshall said. “Should taxpayer funds be used to do research or fund these irreversible, horrifying, irreversible procedures and the use of these hormones off-label?”

“It’s very clear that you share my concern over the well-being of the LGBTQ community, especially young, vulnerable people,” Bertagnolli answered. “If confirmed, I will commit to leading NIH to conduct the research that will achieve the very best health for these vulnerable and special individuals.”

“But right there, do you believe that it’s okay to fund this type of research, where these irreversible procedures are being done?” Marshall pressed. “Do you think there’s any experiment that you can think can justify irreversibly damaging these poor little boys and girls who are 14, 15 years old. Will you fund that type of research?”

“Any research that we do, Senator, with regard to human subjects, has to be done in a way that does no harm and produces the maximum benefit to the people that are participating in the research,” Bertagnolli claimed.

Last year, Chloe Cole, 19, announced that she would sue the organizations and doctors who facilitated the irreversible “gender-affirming” surgeries and treatments she endured as a minor. Townhall covered how Cole shared that she received a double mastectomy at age 15 and came to regret her decision a year later.

“My teenage life has been the culmination of excruciating pain, regret, and, most importantly, injustice,” Cole shared. “It is impossible for me to recoup what I have lost, but I will ensure no child will be harmed at the hands of these liars and mutilators. I am suing these monsters.”