Texas lawmakers have recently advanced legislation on a bill that would prohibit gender-altering medical procedures for Texans under the age of 18. The bill, Senate Bill 1646, would expand the definition of child abuse to include providing puberty-blocking drugs, hormone therapy, or any related surgery for the purpose of gender transitioning or gender reassignment to anyone under the age of 18. The Senate bill was approved on an 18-13 vote and is waiting for a vote by the full House.
The bill states that any medical interventions by puberty-blockers or sex reassignment surgeries can often interrupt the body’s natural developmental processes, which can often result in infertility and other serious health risks.
Psychologist Sarah Jessica Fields said that disfiguring children and gender clinics are now a “multibillion-dollar industry,” adding that the pressure and force of children to get surgeries or take hormones is not only child abuse but against all basic scientific facts.
“As a gerontologist and a psychologist, I can assure you that at the young age of 8 years old, the frontal lobe is not developed; it is not ready to assess the decision to permanently change their own human body. … [That fact] is not news, so this tells me that science is being ignored in order for profits to be gained by the transgender industry. … There are multiple industries profiting from the industrial scale of child abuse,” Fields said.
The bill’s author, Sen. Charles Perry, said that the goal is to delay any treatments until at least the age of 18 when transgender Texans are in a better decision to make decisions about their body and life. He points out that when puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are given to a child, they are almost guaranteed to transition. He said it is an adult decision that should be made by the adult themselves.
“When adults give children these drugs, they are setting a path the children may not have chosen and a path that may never be able to be reversed,” Sen. Perry said.
Texas is one of a handful of states looking to pass legislation to prohibit physicians from providing gender-affirming treatments for people under the age of 18.
Last month, Arkansas voted 71-24 on HB 1570, which would ban any cross-hormone therapy. The bill would make it an “exception” for some people with unspecified chromosomal makeup and hormone production, but deny most of the trans youth under the age of 18. Gov. Hutchinson also signed a similar bill for allowing doctors to refuse to treat someone because of moral or religious objections, a measure that would let doctors refuse trans youth patients from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or surgery in Texas.
State Rep. Robin Lundstrum said she proposed the bill after Democrats made contradicting comments on the science of gender identity and positioning trans and nonbinary identities as a “choice” for the American youth. She explains why she supports restricting these treatments for underage kids and how the bill plan to protect children.
“Those kids are precious. Some of them may choose to be transgender when they’re older. That’s OK, that’s their choice. But when they’re under 18, they need to grow up first. That’s a big decision, there’s no going back,” Lundstrum said.
The real travesty in this whole mess is having to make and debate this law in the first place. Democrats have encouraged and incentivized gender dysphoria in the American youth, leading to mutilation and manipulation. Life-altering decisions belong to the adults, not the children.
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