The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has agreed to spend more than $3 million in taxpayer funds to expand access to sex change operations for minors, drawing criticism from Republican Senators Rand Paul (KY), Marco Rubio (FL), and Ted Budd (NC).
Titled the “TRANS-NIH RESEARCH SUPPORT,” the agreement is between the NIH and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as the Children’s Hospital Corporation, which does business under the name of the Boston Children’s Hospital. The deal, which lists an obligated funding amount of $3,266,707, began in September 2021 and ends on August 31, 2023.
The nearly $3.3 million plan aims to create a “Trans Health Guide” intended to “expand the local workforce of gender-affirming care providers” and “advance equity and reduce mental health disparities for TGD youth through … systemic changes that increase access to gender-affirming care.”
People between the ages of 13 and 24 are considered transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth.
“As a senator and a physician, I am deeply concerned about the NIH’s use of taxpayer money to fund dangerous and controversial youth transgender research,” Sen. Paul told The Daily Wire. “The well-being of our youth is of utmost importance and subjecting them to harmful and experimental medical procedures is unacceptable.”
The grant description claims that “access to gender-affirming care and family support are known to be critical determinants of mental health outcomes for TGD youth.” The project focuses on “five southeastern states with large black transgender populations and limited access to gender-affirming care.”
Additionally, the program includes a “free online training course for continuing education credit,” as well as a platform to hold “consultations with specialists.”
Sen. Rubio joined Paul in condemning the grant.
“The NIH should not use U.S. taxpayer dollars to encourage or promote transgenderism in children, especially when that means subjecting kids to damaging and irreversible surgeries and hormones,” Rubio told The Daily Wire. “The U.S. government should not overlook or diminish the biological reality that underpins human existence.”
“Promoting transgenderism among children raises significant concerns about their physical, social, and psychological well-being. We must protect the innocence and future of our children.”
The Trans Health Guide website goes into greater depth, explaining that healthcare providers “will be able to access free training materials on working with transgender and other gender-diverse youth” and “gender-affirming medical and mental health care.”
The guide is designed to provide “an interactive educational digital platform for TGD youth and caregivers.” The site describes the project as a “multi-level intervention to improve the health of transgender and gender-diverse youth, focusing on TGD youth of color.”
“Our government should not be furthering the fallacy that chemically transitioning children is safe and effective,” said Sen. Tedd Budd (R-NC). “Taxpayer dollars should not be used to encourage gender transition interventions on young people.”
The NIH recently came under scrutiny after it was revealed that two individuals involved in its study on “Psychosocial Functioning in Transgender Youth after 2 Years of Hormones” committed suicide.
Five Republican Senators, including Paul, Rubio, and Budd, along with ten GOP congressmembers, sent a letter to the Acting Director of the NIH, Dr. Lawrence Tobak, blasting the study.
“Rather than shutting the study down after such serious adverse events, the researchers published their paper, concluding that the study was a success because cross-sex hormones had altered subjects’ physical appearance and improved psychosocial functioning,” the letter said.
Boston Children’s Hospital, which has received heavy criticism over its medical transitioning of youth, was named as one of the participants in the study.
January Littlejohn, a Senior Fellow Patient Advocate for Do No Harm, blasted the NIH’s support of child transgenderism as an “outrageous use of taxpayer money,” going on to criticize the medical research agency for pushing “irreversible, harmful treatment interventions on vulnerable and confused children.”
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“Boston Children’s Hospital lost all credibility when they released videos of their doctors stating children ‘seemingly know from the womb’ they are transgender and admitted to performing irreversible gender surgeries on minors,” she added.
Dr. Jeremi Carswell, a pediatric endocrinologist and the director of the Gender Multispeciality Clinic at Boston Children’s Hospital, has admitted on camera that puberty blockers are given out “like candy” and acknowledged they can cause fertility problems. She also said “providers are very, very swayed by our patients” in the field of transgender medical interventions.
WATCH 🚨: Director of the @BostonChildrens Gender Clinic admitted that puberty blockers can CAUSE INFERTILITY and are given to kids "LIKE CANDY."
Here's a thread of Dr. Jeremi Carswell's shocking statements, starting with her admission that puberty blockers can sterilize kids: pic.twitter.com/U6XyY4H7wz
— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) October 10, 2022
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, Do No Harm’s board chair, contrasted the NIH’s support for transgender medical interventions with the approach taken by other developed Western nations.
“What is needed from our government is the same commitment that Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the UK have made to protecting children from undergoing these life altering procedures,” he said.
The NIH and the Boston Children’s Hospital did not respond to a request for comment.