President of American College of Pediatricians: Promoting Transgenderism in Children is ‘Institutionalized Child Abuse’

A national association of pediatricians has come forward to condemn National Geographic for their promotion of transgenderism in this month’s “Gender Revolution” issue, which features a cover photo of 9-year-old Avery Jackson, a transgender “girl.” President of the American College of Pediatricians Michelle Cretella, MD, likened such promotion to “institutionalized child abuse.”

“The best thing about being a girl is, now I don’t have to pretend to be a boy,” says the cover, a quote from the biologically male fourth-grader suffering from gender dysphoria.

Speaking to LifeSite, Dr. Cretella called out National Geographic for “promoting a political agenda over science and the wellbeing of innocent children.”

Dr. Cretella outlined the life-lasting repercussions and serious medial risks associated with children “transitioning.”

“’Affirming’ so called transgender children means sterilizing them as young as 11 years old,” she said. “Puberty blockers plus cross-sex hormones causes permanent sterility. And biological girls who ‘transition’ to male by taking testosterone may have a double mastectomy at age 16. The life time use of cross-sex hormones also puts these children at risk for stroke, heart disease, diabetes, cancers and more.”

Avery’s mother, Debbie Jackson, says her son showed signs of gender confusion at the young age of three, asking to wear dresses and pink headbands. Jackson said the gender confusion would not relent, so she took her son to meet with a psychologist and endocrinologist. After medical issues were ruled out, Jackson allowed her young son to “grew out her hair to look like the girl she is.” Now, she says, she has “a very happy and confident daughter.”

In Dr. Cretella’s medical opinion, this behavior is not an appropriate response. Although the situation Jackson is in with her son is difficult, capitulating to her son’s gender dysphoria will only hurt him in the long run. And the damage is often devastating.

“Cretella believes it is both unethical and harmful for parents to make such decisions regarding their children’s gender because they will most likely grow out of their gender dysphoria,” notes LifeSite.

“When a child under the age of 12 thinks they are the opposite sex and is allowed to naturally pass through puberty, 75%-95% of the time that child will accept his or her biological sex by the late teen years,” said Dr. Cretella.

As highlighted in a report from PJ Media, children who “transitioned” at a young age before eventually accepting their biological gender are speaking out against the so-called transgender “cult” which enabled their “transition” and the permanent damage done to them.

One such young woman named Cari Stella, who “transitioned” to male as a child, revealed that her depression was compounded by the hormone treatments and that she is now left with a broken voice box, a scarred chest and permanent emotional damage.

“I am a real, live 22-year-old woman, with a scarred chest and a broken voice, and five o’clock shadow because I couldn’t face the idea of growing up to be a woman, that’s my reality,” said Stella. “Gender was done to me, gender was traumatizing to me, I don’t want anything to do with it anymore. … It can be damn hard to figure out that the treatment you’re being told is to help you is actually making your mental health worse. Testosterone made me even more dissociated than I already was.”

“It can be damn hard to figure out that the treatment you’re being told is to help you is actually making your mental health worse.”

Cari Stella

The College of American Pediatricians president is urging the public push for transgenderism in children, which she categorized as “institutionalized child abuse,” to stop.

“When academic, medical and other public institutions propagate the lifetime use of toxic hormones and the surgical removal of healthy body parts as healthcare for children they are engaged in institutionalized child abuse,” said Dr. Cretella.