New declaration sounds alarm on the long-term risks of subjecting children to so-called “gender affirming” interventions.
More than 100 medical professionals and groups have signed onto a declaration, which calls for a shift in focus toward addressing underlying psychological problems in children who experience discomfort with their sex.
The Doctors Protecting Children Declaration was issued by pediatricians, doctors, researchers, medical ethics advocates, and faith-based medical groups on June 6 at a press conference in Washington.
Spearheaded by the conservative American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds), the declaration highlights the long-term risks of subjecting gender-confused children to “gender-affirming” interventions, which involves “social transition” such as changing one’s name and appearance to align with a preferred gender, as well as the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and genital surgeries.
Instead, psychotherapy for underlying mental health issues like depression, autism, anxiety, and emotional trauma should be the “first line of treatment” for children who are confused or distressed about their sex, the declaration states.
“We are here defying the claims made by these medical organizations in the U.S. that those of us who are concerned are a minority, and that their protocols are consensus,” Dr. Jill Simmons, a pediatrician and the executive director for the ACPeds, said at the event. “They are not consensus, and we are speaking in a loud and unified voice: enough.”
Dr. Simmons was referring to the protocols developed by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), an international nonprofit group dedicated to the study of transgender health.
The WPATH’s guidelines, known as Standard of Care 8, recommend that adolescent patients diagnosed with “gender incongruence” be given access to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, as long as they can demonstrate “the emotional and cognitive maturity required to provide informed consent/assent for the treatment.”
However, recently leaked internal videos and documents appeared to show that some WPATH members have questioned whether children were able to understand the full ramifications of those drugs and procedures.
Dr. Andre Van Mol, a Navy veteran-turned-family physician and adolescent sexuality expert at ACPeds, echoed such concerns.
By Bill Pan
