President Biden’s HHS has gone all-in on radical transgender ideology, encouraging early body-changing medical interventions as “gender-affirming” care. From the HHS Office of Population Affairs publication:

Gender-affirming care is a supportive form of healthcare. It consists of an array of services that may include medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical services for transgender and nonbinary people.

For transgender and nonbinary children and adolescents, early gender-affirming care is crucial to overall health and well-being as it allows the child or adolescent to focus on social transitions and can increase their confidence while navigating the healthcare system.

And it can ruin their lives, too.

What kind of interventions constitute “early gender-affirming care”?

• Social Affirmation: Adopting gender-affirming hairstyles, clothing, name, gender pronouns, and restrooms and other facilities When: At any age or stage. Reversible

• Puberty Blockers: Using certain types of hormones to pause pubertal development. When: During puberty. Reversible.

• Hormone Therapy: Testosterone hormones for those who were assigned female at birth Estrogen hormones for those who were assigned male at birth. When: Early adolescence onward. Partially reversible

• Gender-Affirming Surgeries: “Top” surgery – to create male-typicalchest shape or enhance breasts “Bottom” surgery – surgery on genitalsor reproductive organs Facial feminization or other procedures. When: Typically used in adulthood or case-by-case in adolescence. Not reversible.

This is awful. Children and adolescents with gender dysphoria certainly need proper care and support. But puberty blocking is not benign and can lead to adverse medical issues such as reduced bone density — which is why it is no longer recommended in the U.K. and Finland, for example.

You Might Like

Mutilating surgeries on genitals and breasts of minors should be off the table altogether. They are irreversible, result in sterilization when of the genitals, and remove healthy organs.

At the very least the government should acknowledge that these drastic interventions are controversial, remain experimental — puberty blockers are “off label” uses of medicines approved to treat pathologies in adolescence — and indeed, sometimes leave patients permanently harmed. This is particularly true in cases where they “detransition” — that is, regain acceptance that they are, indeed, the sex they were born.

Expect the usual suspects to accuse those opposing this drastic recommendation as being motivated by hate as a means of stifling reasoned discourse. Indeed, President Unity has already called state laws to protect transgender minors from such interventions “hateful.”

The reality is exactly the opposite. Love requires that we defend the procreational futures of children and their bodily integrity, particularly in a time of raging moral panic when emotions rule the day. Adults can do what they please. But minors need protection, sometimes, even from themselves.