HHS Exposed for Lacking Scientific Evidence of Claims Regarding ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Children
The Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine is the first openly transgender-identifying individual to hold an office that requires Senate confirmation. Levine, a biological man who says he is a woman, has been an outspoken advocate for transgender issues, particularly for minors who identify as transgender and wish to undergo certain medical treatments such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers.
But now, the nonprofit watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain records from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that support pro-transgender claims that have been articulated. The request is specifically intended to obtain records “records of scientific evidence, studies, and/or data to support the Assistant Secretary’s claim that ‘gender-affirming care is medically necessary, safe, and effective for trans and non-binary youth.”
In response to this, HHS was only able to provide the nonprofit a two-page PDF document.
The document, titled “Gender-Affirming Care and Young People,” can be found on the department’s website. Rather than being a collection of scientific studies and data, the document is a small brochure claiming that “research demonstrates that gender-affirming care improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender-diverse children.”
“Gender-affirming care is a supportive form of healthcare. It consists of an array of services that may include medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical services for transgender and nonbinary people,” the document claims. “For transgender and nonbinary children and adolescents, early genderaffirming care is crucial to overall health and well-being as it allows the child or adolescent to focus on social transitions and can increase their confidence while navigating the healthcare system.”
Among the citations supported to back these claims is a single study that found that children who identify as transgender were less suicidal; when they received “gender-affirming” treatment. But the statistics of this study showed that more than half (51%) of children who were receiving treatment were still suicidal.
According to a report by The Daily Wire, PPT has requested that the HHS Inspector General open an investigation into Levine for “violating the Department’s scientific integrity policies by making politically-motivated declarations and misrepresenting scientific evidence.”
It does not take scientific evidence to prove that it is beneficial for children who suffer from gender dysphoria or are just confused to undergo irreversible transgender treatment. As HHS continues to promote this idea, they are violating the Hippocratic Oath that states physicians and doctors should “do no harm.”
