The Biden administration’s stated opposition to sex-change surgeries for minors doesn’t match the actions of its top health officials and legal strategy.
Recently unsealed court documents from an Alabama court case over a pediatric sex-change treatment ban show that Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Rachel Levine, a man who believes he is a woman, pressured the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) to eliminate age requirements for transgender surgical treatments in their standards of care. (RELATED: Biden Admin Says It Opposes Sex-Change Surgeries For Minors, But Evidence Paints A Different Picture)
“The White House may deny it, but they have a senior leader who is quite opposed to their own stated position on gender-affirming surgery for minors, and who has interfered for explicitly political reasons,” Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, kidney specialist and board chair of Do No Harm, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is a medical scandal for the Biden Administration. Admiral Levine should be fired.”
The documents reveal Levine worried that age restrictions might prompt more states to pass legislation restricting sex-change treatment for minors, threatening Levine’s own professed agenda that “gender-affirming care is medically necessary, safe, and effective for trans and non-binary youth.” (RELATED: Supreme Court Agrees To Take Up Red State Ban On Child Sex Change Procedures)
The Biden administration recently reaffirmed its opposition to banning sex-change procedures for minors. Last week, the administration faced backlash from activist groups after condemning surgeries for minors but endorsing sex-change procedures for transgender adults.
But even non-surgical transgender treatments on young people can impact health and fertility.
Putting children on puberty blockers permanently impacts their fertility, according to several doctors who spoke to the DCNF. Unlike Levine, who transitioned as an adult and expressed gratitude for being able to have kids, children who go on puberty blockers may find parenthood permanently out of reach.
Levine is “taking away the ability for thousands of kids to have that choice,” Dr. Lauren Schwartz told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “If you’re started on puberty blockers at the first signs of puberty and you go on to cross-sex hormones, infertility is all but guaranteed.”
Unlike the U.S., many European countries have moved toward evidence-based models for transgender procedures that focus on addressing the root mental health problems of patients using psychotherapy.
Every patient deserves evidence-based care that “prioritizes his or her safety,” Schwartz said. The ability for patients to provide informed consent is very important with treatment pathways.
“It is substandard care to provide experimental, unfounded treatments, some of which are known to cause severe, irreversible harm as the treatment option, with little to no data regarding long-term outcomes or studies to determine benefits,” Schwartz said. “It is unacceptable for any child to be treated this way, and it is completely unethical to tell parents that this intervention is necessary, or their child will commit suicide.”
Levine – who is trans and has spoken openly about her beliefs in giving puberty blocking medications to trans identified minors – refuses to answer Rand Paul’s pointed question because they don’t want it on the record.
Insanity.pic.twitter.com/8iOORZxjsM
— Rob Smith (@robsmithonline) February 25, 2021
“There are two myths that pervade transgender ideology,” Goldfarb said. “One myth is if you start socially transitioning you can stop. The vast majority who socially transition end up going on medication. The second myth is the idea that puberty blockers are a short term solution that allow people to make a decision. The vast majority go on to transition.”
A report commissioned by the National Health Service England on the efficacy of gender identity services for young people, called the Cass Review, found those who socially transitioned younger were more likely to “proceed to a medical pathway.”
The report offered 32 recommendations for how gender services should operate in England, but found “remarkably weak evidence” to support the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy in children.
🧵Parents should question schools who are socially transitioning kids without parental consent or notification. @thecassreview found “no clear evidence” that social transition in childhood had a positive or negative impact on a child’s mental health. https://t.co/a0niDwYuFD pic.twitter.com/Oju7sFb4D8
— Meg Brock (@MegEBrock) April 14, 2024
Most children diagnosed with gender dysphoria, if permitted to undergo puberty naturally, end up forgoing transition, instead choosing to live as their biological gender, Goldfarb said.
According to the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM), up to 98% of children end up reidentifying with their biological sex at some point during puberty.
The frequency with which children change their mind about wanting to transition raises the question of whether children are able to provide informed consent for such life altering treatments at all, Goldfarb said.
There is no evidence to support the sex-change guidelines propagated by WPATH, the leading authority in the field of gender medicine, according to Eappen. WPATH’s standards of care and treatment guidelines are followed by top medical groups globally.
“WPATH is not a scientific organization,” Eappen said. “It is an activist organization parading as a scientific organization.”
The far reach of WPATH gives the group the ability to influence doctors and treatment guidelines across the U.S., according to Eappen.
“Admiral Levine should resign. Influencing WPATH would influence a lot of other organizations, since many of these other organizations have WPATH members in them.”
None of the interventions such as social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or surgeries improve mental well-being or decrease risk of suicide in adolescents, Vice President of the American College of Pediatricians Dr. Jane Anderson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Cross-sex surgeries are not the only problem,” Anderson said. “The use of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones increases the likelihood of progressing to cross sex surgeries. Incorporating an age limit for surgeries alone will do little to protect the emotional and physical well-being of adolescents who feel uncomfortable in their biological sex.”
The Biden administration appears to be supportive of basically anybody partaking in sex-change treatments, said Dr. Carrie D. Mendoza, emergency medicine physician and director of Genspect USA, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Dr. Levine should be focusing on the children being misdiagnosed and mistreated and how we can stop this malpractice,” Mendoza said.
Neither the White House nor the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health responded to a request for comment.
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