Dr. Michelle Cretella, the executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, warned the Equality Act would give federal approval to the “cancellation” of physicians and mental health professionals who believe, “first, do no harm.”
During a Heritage Foundation webinar Tuesday, focused on protecting American children from radical gender ideology and legislation, Cretella observed that, since the flourishing of the lucrative transgender medical industry, the nation has seen an increase in transgender activism in a movement that now pushes for the immediate affirmation of gender confused children.
She explained:
A child with gender dysphoria is a child who is uncomfortable with their biologic sex. It may be a passing phase, it may be due to confusion. It can also be a sign of underlying traumas and psychopathology. The vast majority of physicians, and counselors and therapists, in practice, strongly believe that, first, you should take a very thorough psychological assessment of the child and the family and search for underlying factors, because … as long as the children are not having this confusion reinforced, the majority of children who are confused about their biological sex outgrow it by the time they are young adults.
Cretella said, however, the surge in transgender activism, has led to the “gaslighting” of many more children and teens:
Unfortunately, since the opening of the first gender clinic in the U.S. in 2007, there has been an increase in transgender activism … Those in authority over the medical education system, and directives to practicing physicians, now recommend that all children, regardless of their age, be affirmed in their gender confusion. They are essentially gaslighting children into the lie that they could be born in the wrong body. This, then, will put them on a medical pathway … in which we stop their normal puberty. We arrest it. Give them a disease – the absence of normal puberty. And that is then followed up by introducing opposite sex hormones to them, the combination of which will render children potentially sterile for life.
Cretella explained studies show that nearly 100 percent of children who are given puberty blockers to stop normal puberty then go on to request cross-sex hormones, “which means we are sterilizing a great number of emotionally troubled youth,” she added.
“And we already have girls, physically healthy girls, who are being referred for double mastectomies at age 13,” she asserted. “This is institutionalized child abuse. We’re taking emotionally troubled youth, psychologically abusing them by reinforcing their gender, sexual confusion, and then experimenting on them with toxic drugs and mutilating surgeries.”
A Gallup poll released Wednesday found 15.9 percent of the U.S. population belonging to “Generation Z,” those born between 1997-2002, now say they identify as LGBT, an increase that coincides with the push for instant affirmation of gender confusion and greater availability of transgender medical treatments.
“One of the main reasons LGBT identification has been increasing over time is that younger generations are far more likely to consider themselves to be something other than heterosexual,” Gallup observed.
Cretella said that, in her role as executive director of an organization of pediatricians, she has been contacted by physicians and mental health professionals who have shared it is now “career-ending to even suggest to a family, or to their colleagues in a professional setting, that these children need a thorough psychological assessment.”
Cretella said that, should the Equality Act be signed into law, Americans will see the elimination of physicians who believe in, “first, do no harm.”
“Let that sink in: physicians who believe in, first, do no harm; therapists, counselors, psychologists who believe in, first, do no harm, will be eliminated from the medical and psychiatric profession,” she said. “The ones you’ll be left with, are those who believe in experiment first, ask questions later.”
“Cancel culture has arrived in medicine and psychology,” she warned. “And it’s very frightening.”