American College of Pediatricians Demands Stop to Transgender Treatments for Children, Argues Kids Can’t Consent

When it comes to transgender medical treatments for children, the battle lines are getting clearer.

For conservatives, the No. 1 issue is the lifelong health and safety of the current generation of confused youths — too young to make decisions that they will carry to the grave.

Whether it is children being exposed to life-altering medical procedures because of ill-advised or ideologically driven adults,  or grown men masquerading as women to enter private spaces, the transgender movement is putting kids in harm’s way.

To its disgrace, the mainstream American medical community, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have largely supported the agenda of the transgender movement — but that could be changing.

On Thursday, the American College of Pediatricians — a conservative group of medical professionals founded in 2002 — and other organizations under the umbrella name “Doctors Defending Children” took a public stand against the transgender insanity being forced onto children, firmly calling for all sex-changing procedures on children to come to an immediate halt.

It has the support of groups such as the Catholic Medical Association, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, and the Coalition of Jewish Values.

And it took direct aim at the most activist element of the medical community to make its case.

The declaration — which attacks a group called the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, among others — straightens out tons of different claims that leftist organizations make, and states the position of the college of pediatricians in terms that most Americans not only understand, but agree with completely.

“Sex is a dimorphic, innate trait defined in relation to an organism’s biological role in reproduction” the declaration states as its first principle. “In humans, primary sex determination occurs at fertilization and is directed by a complement of sex determining genes on the X and Y chromosomes. This genetic signature is present in every nucleated somatic cell in the body and is not altered by drugs or surgical interventions.

That’s not only high-school level biology, it’s a philosophical statement as well — that objective reality exists outside the realm of human feelings.

The statement also over how the feeling of not being at home in one’s body during puberty is normal and is almost always resolved after individuals experience “the normal developmental process of puberty.”

Additionally, the statement emphasizes, in detail, that there are “serious long-term risks associated with the use of social transition, puberty blockers, masculinizing or feminizing hormones, and surgeries, not the least of which is potential sterility.”

It makes the points that puberty blockers “permanently disrupt physical, cognitive, emotional and social development” and that genital surgeries “affect future fertility and reproduction.”

“Responsible informed consent is not possible in light of extremely limited long-term follow-up studies of interventions, and the immature, often impulsive, nature of the adolescent brain,” the declaration states in its second point.

“The adolescent brain’s prefrontal cortex is immature and is limited in its ability to strategize, problem solve and make emotionally laden decisions that have life-long consequences.”

Again, these are statements any honest adult will agree with. Laws ranging from drivers license age limits to those covering statutory rape acknowledge the lack of maturity in a young person’s brain.

“Consent is not possible” when it comes to engaging in sex, but the transgender movement wants the country to think consent is possible when it comes to changing sexes.

The declaration also criticizes doctors who are part of the WPATH umbrella group who have gone ahead with medical transitions for minors even in the face of known negative effects such procedures can have on children.

“Despite all the above evidence that gender-affirming treatments are not only unhelpful, but are harmful, and despite the knowledge that the adolescent brain is immature, professional medical organizations in the United States continue to promote these interventions,” it states.

“Further, they state that legislation to protect children from harmful interventions is dangerous since it interferes with necessary medical care for children and adolescents.”

It finishes by boldly declaring where these medical professionals stand so that there’s no confusion about the negative effects these procedures can have on children.

“Therefore, given the recent research and the revelations of the harmful approach advocated by WPATH and its followers in the United States, we, the undersigned, call upon the medical professional organizations of the United States, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the  Endocrine Society, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 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.”

This is only the beginning of a fight for the future of medicine when it comes to transgender issues, of course, since he pro-trans agenda is firmly dug in with large medical groups.

The AMA, as Fox News noted, states as fact on its website that “Improving access to gender-affirming care is an important means of improving
health outcomes for the transgender population.”

“Receipt of gender-affirming care,” according to the AMA, “has been linked to” all kind of good events, like fewer suicide attempts, decreased anxiety, deceased substance abuse, reduced use of self-prescribed hormones and “improved HIV medication adherence.” (To hear the AMA tell it, transgendering kids solves everything but climate change.)

But the College of Pediatricians statement doesn’t back down, and could well be a basis for Republicans to pass legislation to protect children.

Too many organizations in the United States have fought against efforts to get any law that prohibits transgender care for minors despite the clear negatives it has.

However, with such a multitude of noteworthy organizations on the side of preventing transgender care for children, no other group could hope to outweigh them.

If lawmakers heed the advice given, a future where children are no longer misguided into becoming science experiments for the left and those who attempt to do so are punished could come.

The ball is now in politicians’ courts to respond aptly to the declaration and prevent any more children from being turned into science projects for leftists.