Transgender care on kids is dangerous. Trump was right to block it. | Opinion
Research in the past year has exposed the shortcomings and dangers of transgender care commonly provided for children.
Decades from now, when scholars pen America's history of the early 21st century, I predict that their analysis will identify a cultural phenomenon so destructive that our children's children will scoff that it ever could have happened.
I'm talking about transgender medical interventions on minors.
Thanks in part to President Donald Trump's executive order last week that bans federal funding for chemical and surgical treatment of minors, as well as an ongoing effort by medical professionals and others to expose the harm, these treatments will be viewed one day with dismay.
At least I hope so.
Trump's executive order on transgender care will protect children
Trump's executive order did not mince words. It called out transgender medical treatment of young people under 19 − including gender reassignment surgeries and puberty blockers. The president's order asserted that such care is ideologically based, rather than rooted in sound medicine. And he stated that the life-altering procedures are harmful and destructive.
As a mom, I couldn't agree more.
The executive order is sweeping in scope and incisive in terms of policy. It also offers hope and compassion for kids experiencing gender dysphoria.
Why is Trump issuing a ban on medical procedures from the White House? Research in the past year has exposed the shortcomings and dangers of transgender care commonly provided for children.
The comprehensive Cass Review, for example, determined: "For the majority of young people, a medical pathway may not be the best way to manage their gender-related distress."
The review, commissioned by the National Health Service England, also found: "The rationale for early puberty suppression remains unclear, with weak evidence regarding the impact on gender dysphoria, mental or psychosocial health. The effect on cognitive and psychosexual development remains unknown."
It also noted that "clinicians are unable to determine with any certainty which children and young people will go on to have an enduring trans identity."
It's not just the United Kingdom that is reconsidering transgender care for children. Other European countries, including Finland and Norway, have taken a more cautious approach than the United States.
Until now.
Transgender medicine has become a political weapon
If you doubt that the practice of minors receiving gender reassignment surgeries and puberty blockers has been wielded as a political weapon, consider the story of Dr. Ethan Haim.
The surgeon had faced up to 10 years in federal prison for revealing in 2022 that a Texas hospital had continued gender transition treatments for minors, despite publicly pledging to end the practice. (The state has since banned the procedures.)
After Haim exposed Texas Children's Hospital for doing "transgender medical interventions" on minors, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Texas charged the surgeon with violating the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
But many conservatives see Haim as a whistleblower who was targeted by the Biden administration for attempting to shed light on questionable medical care.
Haim was notified after Trump took office that the Department of Justice had dismissed the charges with prejudice.
The Texas surgeon's story is a cautionary tale of just how much this issue has become politicized − not by the right, but the left.
Controversial treatment shouldn't be partisan
Yet, Trump's executive order banning these treatments shouldn't be divided along partisan lines. And life-altering treatment of minors struggling with gender dysphoria shouldn't be treated as a political litmus test.
Thanks to the research of medical scholars like Dr. Hilary Cass, the reporting of journalists like Abigail Shrier and the courage of surgeons like Dr. Ethan Haim, it's clear that progressives' pressure campaign on gender care has been more about bad ideology than good medicine.
Trump was right to restrict these treatments, and I hope young people struggling with gender dysphoria will seek and find the help they need.
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with Paste BN. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.