A conservative medical campaign group has slammed a list of US healthcare organisations for “pushing the gender transition craze on kids” for their alleged promotion of puberty blockers to children.
The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) name-dropped a litany of top medical groups, calling on them to “follow the science” in a bid to steer them away from trans treatments for minors.
The group said: “Given the recent research and the revelations of the harmful approach advocated by WPATH [World Professional Association for Transgender Health] and its followers in the United States, we, the undersigned, call upon the medical professional organisations of the United States… to follow the science and their European professional colleagues and immediately stop the promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over their biological sex.
The statement came as part of ACPeds’s “Doctors Protecting Children Declaration”
ACPeds/Getty
“Instead, these organisations should recommend comprehensive evaluations and therapies aimed at identifying and addressing underlying psychological co-morbidities and neurodiversity that often predispose to and accompany gender dysphoria.
“We also encourage the physicians who are members of these professional organisations to contact their leadership and urge them to adhere to the evidence-based research now available.”
The statement came as part of ACPeds’s “Doctors Protecting Children Declaration” which urges “ethical care for children with gender dysphoria”.
And conservative commentator Robby Starbuck talked up the statement, praising it for “calling out all the major medical associations by name for pushing the gender transition craze on kids”.
In the US, more than 120,000 children aged between six and 17 were diagnosed with gender dysphoria from 2017 to 2021 – a figure which increased by a staggering 70 from 2020 to 2021, according to data from Reuters and health technology firm Komodo Health.
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From that six-figure total, 17,600 kids started taking puberty blockers or “gender-affirming hormones” within that time period. Of those, 27 per cent were on puberty blockers.
It’s an issue which has led to a major outcry in the UK – back in March, NHS England confirmed that kids would no longer be prescribed controversial puberty blockers – medicines used to postpone puberty in minors – at gender identity clinics.
And calls by ACPeds for US health groups to follow their European counterparts likely referenced moves like NHS England’s, which was made in the wake of the Cass Review into NHS gender services.
Said move even garnered praise from some transgender advocates at the time; after its release, trans commentator Katy Jon Went praised the Cass Review as “constructive” – but warned that the NHS must be “extremely cautious” when it comes to transgender children.
NHS England’s move was made in the wake of the Cass Review into NHS gender services
Cass Review
In her report, Dr Hillary Cass said: “I have been disappointed by the lack of evidence on the long-term impact of taking hormones from an early age; research has let us all down, most importantly you.
“The reality is we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”
She said that people have been “caught in the middle of a stormy social discourse”.
Cass added: “There are few other areas of healthcare where professionals are so afraid to openly discuss their views, where people are vilified on social media, and where name-calling echoes the worst bullying behaviour.”
Source Agencies
