Karine Jean-Pierre Says Kids, Parents Can Decide When To Use Puberty Blockers, Hormones
“It’s not something that we believe should be decided by legislators,” the Press Secretary said.
During a briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the current administration does not believe it is a legislator’s responsibility to set age limits for puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for children.
One reporter posed the question, “Today Indiana just banned puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and gender transition surgeries for minors. I’m wondering what the President’s reaction is to the Indiana governor signing that bill into law, and does the President have a position on at what age these kinds of therapies and surgeries are appropriate?”
“That’s something for a child and their parents to decide. It’s not something that we believe should be decided by legislators, so I’ll leave it there . . . This is a President that has said, these are some of the bravest people he knows, but no one should have to be brave to be themselves.” Jean-Pierre responded.
In the past, the Press Secretary has called state laws banning medical transition for minors “shameful” and “unacceptable.”
There have been several doctors that facilitate and advertise “early transitions” who have outright said that it is the financial incentive keeping them in the business of “gender-affirming” care. “These surgeries make a lot of money . . . a patient just on routine hormone treatment who I’m only seeing a few times a year can bring in sever thousand dollars,” one Tennessee-based doctor explained.
One former pediatric gender clinic employee who left the practice concluded, “we are permanently harming the vulnerable patients in our care.”
Many European countries have scaled back their gender clinic operations in recent months. Some by force, like the UK’s Tavistock clinic which closed its doors after receiving a lawsuit filed by 1,000 families of gender dysphoric children, and others because of new National Health Service (NHS) guidance. Last year, the NHS released new recommendations for care in regards to children suffering from gender dysphoria. The organization stated that most children are in a “transient phase” and will likely grow out of their feelings of confusion. That data prompted the NHS to recommend refraining from medical and social transitions until the child is closer to consenting age.
