A number of blue states have passed laws allowing children to receive transgender surgeries and drugs, often without parental knowledge or consent.
Many of the bills are designed to allow children to pursue such a medical route on their own, require insurance to cover it, and give legal shields to doctors who provide the services.
Both California and Minnesota advertised their child transition measures as the states becoming a “refuge” for patients and doctors.
“The Left is in denial that cross-sex hormones and experimental surgeries that remove healthy body parts are a danger to children and create irreversible physical and psychological harm,” Heritage Action for America Executive Director Jessica Anderson told the Washington Examiner. “Blue states like California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington are passing bills that strip parents of their right to protect their children by allowing shelters and host homes to not contact parents about their runaway children with gender confusion.”
Vermont is the latest state, with Gov. Phil Scott (R-VT) signing a bill Wednesday. Scott became only the second Republican governor in the country to sign this kind of measure after Gov. Charlie Baker (R-MA) made a similar move last year.
Vermont’s law, which gay lobby GLAD endorsed as the “most comprehensive transgender healthcare protections to date,” enshrines the experimental procedures and drugs as a “legal right.”
“Interference with legally protected healthcare activity, whether or not under the color of law, is against the public policy of this State,” the law reads.
The law has several legal shields for patients and doctors, such as providing the ability to counter-sue in litigation from another state and noncooperation from government officials in litigation from another state, meaning Vermont will not arrest or extradite someone for providing or obtaining the drugs or procedures.
Washington is another recent addition, with Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) signing a measure Tuesday. Children in the Evergreen State will now be able to run away from home while seeking transgender treatments and stay in a shelter that is now no longer required to contact the child’s parents.
Instead, shelters can now contact the state’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families, which would make the determination as to whether to contact the child’s family.
“With this bill, Washington leads the way by taking a more compassionate, developmentally appropriate, and reasoned approach to support these youth as they access gender-affirming treatment and reproductive healthcare services,” Inslee said.
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of the medical advocacy group Do No Harm, told the Washington Examiner that Washington’s new law is “likely to do much more harm than good,” emphasizing that children “cannot provide informed consent, nor can they truly understand the procedures that they are undergoing.”
“It is now well documented that the mental health of these children typically requires a great deal of psychological therapy and care, something that the gender clinics, particularly the one at the University of Washington Children’s Hospital, do not provide according to their own website,” he said. “The literature now clearly shows that there is scant evidence that the psychological well-being of these children is aided by undergoing puberty blockers or hormonal therapy.”
“The state of Washington should be seeking to integrate these children back into their families and provide them with the psychological guidance that they need to overcome the psychological turmoil that almost invariably accompanies gender transition,” Goldfarb concluded.
According to GLAD, 10 states have already enacted similar laws or have had governors sign executive orders, and seven states have bills pending consideration.
While those bills exist primarily in heavily blue states, organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union are pushing for constitutional amendments in red states that would have the effect of allowing anyone of any age to access transgender surgeries and drugs without parental consent. The amendments would impose those lax restrictions on states without requiring legislative approval.
The moves by blue states and the ACLU come as Republican-led states are attempting to protect children from these procedures.
“Conservative lawmakers and grassroots Americans across the country have been fighting to protect children against radical gender ideology and give them the compassionate care they need,” Anderson said. “Eleven states, including Utah, Tennessee, Iowa, and Missouri, have already passed or enacted laws that prevent medical providers from performing and administering dangerous surgeries and drugs, preventing them from experiencing lifelong complications.”
* Article From: The Washington Examiner