The American College of Pediatricians launched a new “biological integrity” initiative this week with the goal of exposing the dangers of transgender procedures on children.
The initiative has compiled online resources for teens, physicians, schools, policymakers, and parents whose children struggle with gender dysphoria. The ACPeds is a national not-for-profit organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, that has members from 47 different states and several countries.
“We have been receiving increasing demands to provide clarity and support on the gender dysphoria issue and it is our hope that the Biological Integrity Initiative will be a valuable, practical resource for everyone involved. The term biological integrity denotes living in consistency with one’s natural, biological self — the integrated whole of body and mind. Children and adolescents should be loved, and taught to love themselves, as wholly male or female. Children are always born in the right body,” said ACPeds Executive Director Dr. Jill Simons in a statement.
Part of the initiative also includes physicians from ACPeds looking to testify across the country on the topic of gender dysphoria and working to publish more research and position statements on the topic. The group will also provide training to health care professionals looking to speak publicly on the issue.
According to ACPeds, giving children cross-sex hormones, such as putting young girls on testosterone, can be associated with an “increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers across their lifespan.”
“The massive push we are seeing for children to become the targets of experimental, life-altering drugs and surgeries is ideological in nature, directly opposed to biological reality, antithetical to good medical practice, and deeply disturbing to doctors who have devoted their lives to ethical, compassionate care for their most vulnerable patients — children,” ACPeds President Dr. Michael Artigues said.
In the last year, about 20 states have passed laws shielding kids from being given puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries like double mastectomies on girls who identify as boys.
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The laws have prompted court challenges, with leftist groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claiming that the laws violate the Fourteenth Amendment.
In a major ruling on Thursday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld laws in Tennessee and Kentucky prohibiting children from being given cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers, rejecting a challenge from the ACLU.
“This is a relatively new diagnosis with ever-shifting approaches to care over the last decade or two. Under these circumstances, it is difficult for anyone to be sure about predicting the long-term consequences of abandoning age limits of any sort for these treatments,” wrote Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton.