Late last week, the Biden administration came out with a statement claiming that it does not support so-called “gender-affirming” surgery for minors.
The statement came in response to an article from The New York Times reporting that the Biden administration pressured a transgender health organization to remove age restrictions for sex reassignment surgery from its treatment guidelines for minors.
The pressure to remove age minimums for surgery was spearheaded by U.S. Adm. Rachel Levine, who is transgender, along with his staff, which Townhall covered.
“Adm. Levine shared her view with her staff that publishing the proposed lower ages for gender transition surgeries was not supported by science or research, and could lead to an onslaught of attacks on the transgender community,” an Health and Human Services spokesperson told the Times on Friday.
In a follow-up, the Biden administration told the 19th News on Tuesday, “These are deeply personal decisions and we believe these surgeries should be limited to adults.”
“We continue to support gender-affirming care for minors, which represents a continuum of care, and respect the role of parents, families, and doctors in these decisions,” the White House spokesperson added.
The Biden White House still supports so-called “gender-affirming care” in the forms of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors, which can have detrimental impacts on children's bodies forever.
However, President Biden previously stated said in an interview with so-called “transgender” Dylan Mulvaney that he doesn’t think states should limit any type of care that falls under “gender-affirming care.”
“I don't think any state or anybody should have the right to do that,” Biden said in the interview. “As a moral question and as a legal question, I just think it's wrong.”
Joe Biden says “it’s wrong” for states to ban sex reassignment surgery and puberty blockers for kids. pic.twitter.com/INu6ncxHQ3
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 23, 2022
In a statement to reporters, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, Kelly Rowland, said, “The Biden administration is flat wrong on this," regarding the statement claiming that "transgender" individuals should wait until they are 18 to access surgery.
“It's wrong on the science and wrong on the substance. It's also inconsistent with other steps the administration has taken to support transgender youth,” Rowland added.
Allison Scott, director of impact and innovation at the Campaign for Southern Equality, described the administration’s statement as “cowardly,” according to The Washington Examiner.
“It is a troubling concession to the right-wing assault on transgender Americans, falling for their false narratives about surgical care and betraying a commitment to equality and trust in the medical community,” Scott said in a statement. “Government has no business inserting itself into private medical decisions that should be exclusively between patients, their providers, and the patient’s parents or guardians.”
“It is dangerous to begin endorsing categorical bans or limits on healthcare, and there is no justification for restricting transgender youth’s access to the very same care that many cisgender youth receive every year – that’s literally the definition of discrimination,” Scott added. “We demand the Biden Administration retract this thoughtless statement and work to undo its damage.”
Late last month, Townhall reported how the United States Supreme Court agreed to take on a case challenging Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and irreversible sex reassignment surgeries for minors.
