Pentagon Doctors Back Child Sex Changes, Blast Red States

A group of doctors from the Department of Defense has defended sex-change procedures for minors and criticized Republican-led states that have outlawed the life-altering treatments for children, according to a significant medical journal. The doctors published an article, “Caring for Military-Affiliated Transgender and Gender-Diverse Youths: A Call for Protections,” in the March issue of the American Journal of Public Health. The authors are David A. Klein, Thomas A. Baxter, and Natasha A. Schvey, who work at Travis Air Force Base in California, and Noelle S. Larson, who works in the pediatric department at Walter Reed National Military Hospital.

Despite concerns over the long-term consequences of such treatments, including cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers, the doctors advocate allowing children to utilize them. “Gender-affirming health care, such as puberty suppression and affirming hormones, mitigates these risks and optimizes patient-oriented outcomes, but many TGD youths have difficulty accessing services,” the authors assert in the article, first reported by Fox News.

The writers broached the so-called “barriers” to providing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to children, which include a survey showing that over 50% of military-affiliated physicians would not prescribe hormones and federal and state laws that now prohibit such procedures. “Legislative efforts to restrict gender-affirming care for youths have been described as a public health crisis. New state laws directly harm TGD [transgender and gender-diverse] adolescents by denying access to potentially life-saving medical care and further exacerbating health care inequities, health risk behaviors, and preventable deaths,” the doctors state.

Additionally, the medical professionals stated that barring boys who identify as girls from participating in girls’ sports teams and separating restrooms by gender is “harmful.” They ask what military doctors in “red” states will do if “state laws conflict with ethical medical practice and the standard of care.” “Threats to military-affiliated youths, parents, guardians, and clinicians are threats to military readiness,” the article says.

The article does not express the official opinions of the Defense Department, and the authors have asked the department to take an official stance, advocating for it to “leverage its robust, intact systems to overcome evolving barriers to the provision of and access to care.” “The Department of Defense will train its health care providers in keeping with current science and best medical evidence,” the Department of Defense stated in response to Fox News.

The Biden administration has spoken out against new laws that ban sex-change procedures for minors in states like Tennessee and Mississippi and instead favors these procedures.

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