Joe Biden’s assistant secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine — a transgender female who is also a pediatrician — is all-in on empowering children to get “gender affirmation treatment” which includes permanent life-altering surgery. But in fact, dozens of medical and child health experts, as well as young people who have undergone such treatment, are pushing back.
In an interview on MSNBC — where else? — on Monday, Levine justified her extremist position by claiming that transgender youths (of which there were nearly none like 15 minutes ago) are threatened by mental health issues, political attacks, and bullying. As such, they should be receiving treatment that affirms their ‘perceived’ gender identity and thus should be empowered to medically and surgically alter their sex.
“So we really want to base our treatment and to affirm and to support and empower these youth not to limit their participation in activities in sports and even limit their ability to get gender affirmation treatment in their state,” Levine told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell.
Adm. Rachel Levine: 'One supportive adult' can 'make all the difference' for transgender youth @HHS_ASH @MSNBC https://t.co/rKzU9O68DR
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) July 18, 2022
The Daily Caller notes:
Levine previously endorsed Biden’s June 15 executive order expanding access to sex change treatments for children and said there is no debate within the medical community about whether children who believe they are transgender should receive sex change treatments.
Sex changes, which Levine refers to as “gender affirmation treatments,” include socially transitioning to the opposite sex, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries.
“Trans youth are vulnerable. They suffer significant harassment and bullying, sometimes in schools or their community,” Levine told Mitchell. “They have more mental health issues, but there’s nothing inherent with being transgender or gender diverse, which would predispose youth to depression or anxiety. It’s the harassment and bullying.”
“Now they are suffering politically motivated attacks through state actions against these vulnerable transgender youth. This is not based upon data. These actions are politically motivated,” Levine said.
But scores of child health and mental health professionals disagree with Levine’s claim that there is “no debate” within the medical community on the issue.
A new report from the Heritage Foundation “directly challenges claims from pro-transgender clinical organizations, activists, and the Biden administration that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones reduce suicides of minors who believe they are the opposite sex,” Breitbart News reported earlier this month.
The outlet notes:
The 25-page report, written by Senior Research Fellow Dr. Jay Greene, analyzes existing studies about the effectiveness of these treatments in preventing youth suicides. Greene found, similar to a recent report published by Florida Medicaid, that current research “fail[s] to show a causal relationship and [has] been poorly executed.”
The author took his analysis a step further, conducting research with what he called a “superior research design.” He ultimately found “that easing access to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones by minors without parental consent increases suicide rates.”
“U.S. policymakers are seeking to make it easier for minors to access puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones based on the claim that doing so reduces suicide risk,” the report notes. “Studies finding that ‘gender-affirming’ interventions prevent suicide fail to show a causal relationship and have been poorly executed.
“A superior research design shows that easing access to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones by minors without parental consent increases suicide rates,” the report added.
Also, a former trans teen from California recently spoke out in favor of Florida’s ban on using taxpayer funds for medical transitions for children.
“I really didn’t understand all of the ramifications of any of the medical decisions that I was making,” Chloe Cole, 17, said at a public hearing last week, adding that said she was medically transitioned from ages 13 to 16 when she took so-called puberty-blocking drugs and testosterone before undergoing surgery to remove her breasts at age 15.
“I was unknowingly physically cutting off my true self from my body, irreversibly and painfully,” she added, according to Fox News.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to fully carry a child, and I might be at increased risk for certain cancers, mainly cervical cancer,” Cole went on to say in a separate private meeting with Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on Friday, video of which the SG posted on Twitter Sunday.
“And because I do not have my breasts, … I am not able to breastfeed whatever future children I have,” she continued. “That realization, actually, was one of the biggest things that led to me realizing that this was not the path that I should have taken.”
“No child should have to experience what I have,” she went on to say.
When she was what message she wanted to give to the public, she declared: “Do not transition your kids.”
