White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dodged a question Wednesday on whether the administration intends to condemn the United Kingdom (UK) for a decision to ban “puberty blockers” for “transgender kids.”
As Breitbart News reported last week:
Britain’s National Health Service will no longer routinely prescribe puberty blockers to children amid concerns over a lack of evidence on the impact of the so-called gender-affirming drugs.
In what is being described as a historical moment, the UK’s state healthcare provider will no longer be prescribing children with life-altering puberty blockers except in exceptional cases or in the context of clinical research.
…
[F]amilies and children will be “strongly discouraged” from seeking to acquire puberty-blocking drugs from unregulated sources or on the internet.
A reporter first asked Jean-Pierre about comments that President Joe Biden made last week in a joint press conference with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, saying that states limiting access to puberty-blocking drugs and gender reassignment surgery for children were motivated by “prejudice” and cruelty, not concern for kids.
The reporter asked whether Biden might withhold Medicare funds from those states. Jean-Pierre said she had no information about any such decision. The reporter then asked about the fact that the UK changed its policy just days after the press conference. “Will the president raise this human rights issue with his counterpart?”
Jean-Pierre declined to answer directly, saying she had not seen “those comments directly,” and that she would “go beyond what the president said.” She did not add whether the UK ban was “prejudiced” or cruel.
It is not clear what defines a “trans child,” nor is there consensus on age of consent for transgender drugs or surgery.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.