Pentagon doctors claimed that seven-year-olds are capable of making decisions to be injected with puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones.
Healthcare providers connected with the Department of Defense (DoD) argued in favor of the so-called “gender-affirming” model of care for children with gender dysphoria, Fox News first reported.
The providers advocated for “gender-affirming health care, such as puberty suppression and affirming hormones,” in the March edition of the American Journal of Public Health, also going on to claim that “youths … have an inherent ability and right to consent to gender-affirming therapy.”
The authors — David A. Klein, Thomas Baxter, Noelle S. Larson, and clinical psychologist, Natasha A. Schvey, PhD — called for the military to train providers with the so-called “gender-affirming” model of care. They did, however, acknowledge that 53 percent of physicians associated with the military through the DoD health system have stated that they would refuse to provide hormones.
Larson, who is a pediatric endocrinologist, works for the Department of Pediatrics at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, while Klein Schvey and Baxter work at California’s Travis Air Force Base.
The authors also argued that it is unethical for providers to wait to see if a patient grows out of gender dysphoria. The paper reads:
Some well-intentioned military-affiliated clinicians may not be aware that a ‘watchful waiting’ approach has a different risk profile than a gender-affirmative approach (which allows for gender identity exploration), and that ‘conversion therapy’ is unethical, harmful, and generally illegal.
The DoD stated that “The Department of Defense will train its health care providers in keeping with current science and best medical evidence,” when asked by Fox News whether or not it intended to offer training in support of the “gender-affirming” model of care.
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb of Do No Harm, an organization dedicated to opposing racial and gender ideologies in medicine, spoke out against the claims made in the paper. He remarked, “The notion that 7-year-old children are capable of such decisions is beyond laughable.”
“The existence of a large, perhaps as much as 25% cohort of ‘detransitioners,’ suggests the folly of assuming the soundness of childhood decisions,” he also stated.
The providers also remarked:
Clinicians… may be forced to choose between withholding… treatments to act in accordance with state law, and providing ethical and evidence-based treatment while facing legal or financial persecution, dishonorable military service, or allegations of child abuse.
”The DHA should also make a commitment to defending clinicians and families who render gender-affirming care to minors in accordance with DHA legal guidance from prosecution under state laws or policies that criminalize this care,” the doctors also said.
The providers also argued that the DoD should “leverage its robust, intact systems” to “sponsor research” on “military outcomes associated with access to timely gender-affirming care.”
Meanwhile, the Pentagon told Fox News that “The Department of Defense provides federally authorized care in its military medical treatment facilities in accordance with applicable law.”
Goldfarb, who blasted the article as “propaganda,” stated that “Just because a child states that they understand the implications of gender transitioning does not mean that they can conceive of their future regrets.”
He also went on to add:
These physicians should exam the literature and face the reality that the reason that Finland, Norway, Denmark, and the U.K. have opted to severely restrict the use of puberty blockers and sex-characteristic altering hormones is that we have little if any evidence that we are not hurting more children that we are helping.
Spencer Lindquist is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerLndqst and reach out at slindquist@breitbart.com
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