{"id":1757916,"date":"2022-12-01T06:30:21","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T11:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1757916"},"modified":"2022-12-01T08:48:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T13:48:18","slug":"politico-ignores-enormous-risks-of-child-transition-to-push-kids-to-castration-instead-of-actual-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/politico-ignores-enormous-risks-of-child-transition-to-push-kids-to-castration-instead-of-actual-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Politico Ignores Enormous Risks Of Child \u201cTransition\u201d to Push Kids to Castration Instead of Actual Care"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpolitico-ignores-enormous-risks-of-child-transition-to-push-kids-to-castration-instead-of-actual-care%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1757916&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Pride-flag.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Politico published what it called a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/11\/27\/trans-medical-care-red-states-families-00064394\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Special Report<\/a>\u201d over the weekend, chronicling the experiences of families with transgender-identifying youths who have moved because of state laws that place restrictions on wrong-sex treatments for underage children. As when reading all corporate media coverage, readers should ask: What narrative is this writer pushing? But in this one-sided, pro-trans, and anti-science article, Politico leaves no doubt.<\/p>\n<p>Underpinning the story lies the premise that encouraging children to undergo complicated medical procedures to attempt to change their sex (impossible) provides unalloyed benefits to the youths in question. But just because Politico says something doesn\u2019t necessarily make it so.<\/p>\n<h2>Glaring Omissions<\/h2>\n<p>I should preface my comments by stating that I do not have a medical background in endocrinology or otherwise. I won\u2019t pretend to know the \u201cright\u201d way or \u201cwrong\u201d way to treat someone with gender dysphoria, although I hope that all God\u2019s children get treated with dignity and respect.<\/p>\n<p>But as someone who works in health policy, I have noticed several instances in recent months in which high-profile people have begun questioning the effects of puberty blockers and treatments that involve extensive hormone therapies and gratuitous surgeries that irreversibly damage people. Having come across these data points during my health policy work, I found the Politico piece striking for what it excluded.<\/p>\n<p>While the section of Politico\u2019s story discussing (or, more accurately, promoting) the medical merits of wrong-sex therapeutics began by referencing one recent expose in another national publication, it quickly minimized the concerns that story raised: \u201cEven though the New York Times reported that some research suggests the treatment could seriously weaken bone health in youths, multiple mainstream medical organizations \u2026 have taken the position that gender-affirming care is a medical necessity.\u201d By dismissing the Times article as solely related to \u201cbone health,\u201d Politico omitted discussion of other topics addressed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/14\/health\/puberty-blockers-transgender.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">story<\/a>, including growing concerns in Europe regarding transgender interventions, and the lack of Food and Drug Administration approval for using puberty blockers on children.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the Times piece, Reuters in October published a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/investigates\/special-report\/usa-transyouth-care\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nearly 8,000-word article<\/a> on the growth of cross-sex procedures and the lack of research into these interventions\u2019 long-term effects. Reuters noted that of the 39 parents it spoke with about their experiences seeking transgender procedures and drugs for their children, more than two-thirds (28) \u201csaid they felt pressured or rushed to pursue treatment.\u201d Politico did not mention this in-depth investigation at all.<\/p>\n<p>The story quoted three individuals \u2014 two doctors and the director of transgender justice at the ACLU \u2014 all of whom spoke favorably of the processes involved with transitioning children; one of the doctors claimed there was \u201cundertreatment\u201d of transgender youth. By contrast, the Times and Reuters stories quoted at least nine separate medical experts who showed some degree of skepticism toward puberty blockers or other types of cross-sex treatment. Politico did not quote these skeptics nor any other doctors questioning the procedures involved in transitioning children in its self-proclaimed \u201cSpecial Report.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the medical experts Politico did cite, Marci Brown, is president of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH). Politico quoted Brown as saying that \u201cgender-affirming care unequivocally positively affects the lives of those it treats.\u201d But Politico did not note, as the October Reuters piece did, that WPATH\u2019s new standards of care guidelines acknowledge the lack of evidence examining long-term outcomes of hormones and admit that in the absence of such evidence, \u201cthe decision to start gender-affirming medical interventions may not be in the long-term best interest of the young person at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Politico cited the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Physicians, as some of the \u201cmultiple mainstream medical organizations\u201d supporting the necessity of these risky, experimental procedures. However, unlike the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/14\/health\/puberty-blockers-transgender.html\">Times<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/investigates\/special-report\/usa-transyouth-care\/\">Reuters<\/a> stories, Politico did not mention that England\u2019s National Health Service has shut down its main facility tasked with providing wrong-sex hormones and transgender surgery and that Sweden and Finland have limited access to similar treatments over concerns about not just physical ramifications from the drugs, but whether doctors are prescribing them without first assessing patients\u2019 mental health.<\/p>\n<p>One of the article\u2019s three co-authors, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/staff\/joanne-kenen\">Joanne Kenen<\/a>, is the Commonwealth Fund\u2019s journalist-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University. The Commonwealth Fund, as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit, must remain nonpartisan \u2014 but like other think tanks, that does not make it non-ideological. Commonwealth embraces much of the leftist agenda \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commonwealthfund.org\/health-equity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">for instance<\/a>, by \u201chighlight[ing] policies and practices needed to achieve an antiracist health system\u201d\u2014 and has published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commonwealthfund.org\/blog\/2018\/federal-protections-health-care-risk-transgender-americans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">research<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commonwealthfund.org\/publications\/podcast\/2022\/oct\/improving-health-care-trans-youth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">various forms<\/a> providing largely unqualified support for transitioning children. At no point in the article did Politico disclose Kenen\u2019s relationship with Commonwealth or the fund\u2019s ideological leanings.<\/p>\n<p>Between them, the Times and Reuters have, in the past two months, published approximately 13,000 words highlighting potential drawbacks to, and consequences of, allowing children to undergo the process of so-called gender transition. For Politico to publish a \u201cSpecial Report\u201d on transgender interventions featuring three bylined reporters, and 13 other credited individuals, with only one passing and dismissive reference to the debate over the ramifications of such interventions, suggests either egregious sloppiness, ideological bias, or both.<\/p>\n<h2>Constructing a Narrative<\/h2>\n<p>Politico did not respond to my request for comment by deadline. They might, however, claim that the article focused largely on transgender youth and families themselves, with any discussion of the medical merits of the treatments at issue as secondary. They might also point to quotes from lawmakers who have proposed legislation blocking medical interventions for transgender-identifying youth \u2014 including Alabama\u2019s Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican state legislator from Florida, and an attempt to solicit comment from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) \u2014 as showing the publication\u2019s desire for ideological balance.<\/p>\n<p>But a skeptic might argue that this attempt at \u201cbalance\u201d takes pains to avoid disrupting the article\u2019s narrative \u2014 and indeed, the larger leftist narrative on this issue. If the article intends to advance a narrative suggesting <em>Neanderthal legislators pass laws that bully and harass transgender youth<\/em>, then interviewing some of those Neanderthal legislators nods at balance \u2014 at least superficially \u2014 without jeopardizing the narrative.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, raising any significant doubt about the medical effectiveness of prepubescent or pubescent transgender interventions would undermine that broader narrative because it could make restrictions on providing such drugs and procedures to youths seem appropriate. That provides one possible explanation why the discussion of the medical merits of transitioning children, while brief, was almost entirely one-sided and why the three Politico reporters failed to quote any medical experts skeptical of it, ignoring the recent work of other major news publications in doing so.<\/p>\n<p>To end where I began: I don\u2019t hold any medical expertise, least of all on matters like endocrinology and transgender medicine. But having read two lengthy, recent, and prominent exposes about the potential hazards experienced when young people undergo the process of so-called transition, even this non-expert realizes that Politico could and should have done far better than stating opinion as fact and blithely ignoring concerns that medical experts have raised.<\/p>\n<p>Medical degree or not, I can recognize garbage reporting when I see it \u2014 and the Politico piece certainly qualifies.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, and author of the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisjacobsHC\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Politico published what it called a \u201cSpecial Report\u201d over the weekend, chronicling the experiences of families with transgender-identifying youths who have moved because of state laws that place restrictions on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1756216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1757916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1757916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1756216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1757916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1757916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1757916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}