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The debate around the use of puberty blockers in children has sparked debate for some time now. The issue finds itself in the spotlight again after comments made by the Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The Republican Attorney General, Ken Paxton, released a formal opinion saying performing certain “sex-change” procedures on children, and prescribing puberty-blockers to them, is “child abuse” under Texas law. After the formal opinion of Paxton, the Texas Governor, Greg Abbott issued an order to the state’s child welfare agency that they should investigate the gender-change treatments for children as abuse. Puberty blockers also known as puberty inhibitors are drugs that are used to postpone puberty in children. These drugs are basically hormones that stop pituitary glands of children from initiating puberty changes in their body.
The Republican state Senator, Matt Krause, asked the state attorney general, few weeks ago, about certain medical and chemical procedures on children that if these constitute as child abuse. Krause serves as the chairman of the Committee on General Investigating in the Texas House of Representatives.
Paxton, in a 13-page letter, gave his legal opinion. Paxton wrote that certain procedures like castration, fabrication of male or female sex organs from other body parts or puberty-suppressing and infertility-inducing prescriptions or other such are all “abuse” under the Texas Family Code section 261.001.
The largest pediatric hospital of the US has stopped transgender therapies for kids. The decision to stop hormone-related prescription therapies comes after the Texas Children’s Hospital reviewed the order from Governor Abbott.
The hospital, in a statement released on Friday, wrote, “The mission of Texas Children’s Hospital is to create a healthier future for all children, including transgender children, within the bounds of the law… This step was taken to safeguard our health care professionals and impacted families from potential criminal legal ramifications,”.
Paxton tweeted, “Glad to hear that today Texas Children’s Hospital halted their child-abuse procedures”, After the hospital’s announcement.
This isn’t the first hospital to acknowledge the children’s right to be mature before making life changing decisions.
A renowned Swedish hospital announced in May 2021 that it will no longer prescribe puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors under the age of 16.
The Karolinska University Hospital located in Stockholm said in a statement “The hormonal treatment of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria may consist of puberty-blocking treatment initiated at the onset of puberty, and cross-sex hormones initiated at the age of 16,”. Additionally stated “These treatments are controversial and have recently become subject to increased attention and scrutiny both nationally and internationally.”
The hospital further said “This makes it challenging to assess the risk/benefit for the individual patient, and even more challenging for the minors and their guardians to be in a position of an informed stance regarding these treatments,”.
The number of doctors who are against the treatment which LGBT proponents call “gender-affirmative”, is growing day by day. Pediatric endocrinologists are raising their concern about transgender treatments for children.
In an interview Dr. Pau Hruz, a pediatric researcher at the Washington University School of Medicine addressing the concerns said that the science behind gender-affirmative treatment is still experimental.
As a specialist in studying the impact of hormones on the human body, Hruz said “We really have no long-term data in using this intervention in children. We do have short-term studies that have very serious weaknesses and limitations,”.
Hruz explained that researchers have begun collecting data on these youth, but the data collected so far isn’t enough to fully understand the risks and benefits. It may take decades to have decisive data. He said “The question that needs to be asked is, if this turns out not to be a good approach, how many children are going to be harmed?”
Experimental and potentially harmful treatments should not be allowed especially to children who haven’t reached the age of maturity. Steps taken by the Texas Government and few doctors and hospitals is small but a step in the right direction.
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