Biden Should Follow UK Government Lead And Ban Puberty Blockers
Today, Britain’s National Health Service rejected the medicalization of gender distress, setting an example for the world
American medical organizations, liberal journalists, and Democratic politicians say all young people have an innate gender identity that may not match their biological sex. Some of these young people, they say, experience gender dysphoria and require puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries to resolve their unease. Without these crucial medical treatments, doctors and academics claim, children and adolescents are likely to commit suicide.
But today, the National Health Service (NHS) England confirmed that children will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics and that their only allowed use in the UK will be in scientific research trials. The announcement followed an independent review commissioned by NHS England, which found a lack of long-term evidence for children given puberty blockers.
This decision comes one week after the release of internal communications from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). The WPATH Files revealed that doctors and therapists involved in “gender medicine” are aware that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and genital surgeries have life-altering consequences to which children and adolescents cannot consent.
Efforts to protect children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults from pseudoscientific medical interventions are far from over. Most US medical organizations still support the use of puberty blockers for children experiencing gender distress. And in the US, President Joe Biden has repeatedly defended puberty blockers, drugs, and surgeries for children as “medically necessary health care.”
In 2022, Biden signed an executive order that called on the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education to expand access to “gender-affirming care” and fight states that have sought to limit puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries.
But the decision by the UK government, after years of research, has put wind in the sails of advocates for non-medical treatments of gender distress.
"Now's the time for President Biden, Congress, or the FDA to follow the UK and ban puberty blockers for children," said Dr. Carrie Mendoza, a medical doctor and US Director for Genspect. "The UK and the rest of Europe are far ahead of us, but the science is the same. Children cannot consent to blocking their puberty. Being allowed to grow up is a fundamental human right."