FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 5, 2023
Contact: Laura Macklem
[email protected]
Electronic Press Kit
“YOUTH HEALTH PROTECTION ACT” WOULD SHEILD MINORS FROM DANGEROUS GENDER TRANSITION SURGERIES AND TREATMENTS
North Carolina children would be protected from genital mutilation and irreversible damage from gender transitioning surgeries and chemical castration, if the “Youth Health Protection Act” is successful in the NC General Assembly. Today, Senators Ralph Hise, Norman Sanderson and Buck Newton introduced SB 639 to prevent medical professionals from administering procedures including sterilization, mastectomies, castrations, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and other life-altering procedures and treatments on gender-confused children.
“In 2019 female genital mutilation on minors was outlawed in North Carolina, with both the House and Senate voting unanimously,” said NC Values Coalition Executive Director Tami Fitzgerald said. “Now it’s time to extend those protections to all children and to prohibit puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and surgeries which can have life-altering consequences.
“I’m grateful Senators Hise, Sanderson and Newton are standing in the gap between innocent, confused young people and the gender transitioning industry and their activists, to protect them from amputation of healthy body parts and life-altering hormone therapies. North Carolina children deserve a natural childhood with all the typical changes and discoveries, shaping who they will become as individuals without medical professionals manipulating the gender confused to line their pockets, permanently altering the bodies of healthy children.”
Studies indicate the majority of children (84.2%) who struggle with gender dysphoria, revert to identifying with their biological gender, without medical interventions like puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. Researchers believe the increase in the condition is related to social media, “clusters” in schools, and the culture normalizing gender dysphoria. Hormone altering drugs cause anxiety, depression, joint disorders, bone fractures and other negative effects. One Swedish study found, “Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behavior, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population.”
“What started as an ideology has now become a multi-billion-dollar industry. Gender clinics operating in North Carolina at Duke, UNC, Cone Health, and Levine Children’s Hospital are mutilating patients without scientific proof of the efficacy of gender identity “treatments.” The use of puberty blockers for gender nonconforming children is experimental and not FDA-approved,” said Fitzgerald. “Allowing a child to make decisions on sterilization, amputation of healthy body parts and hormone manipulation is irreversible, irresponsible and immoral. This legislation would insulate children from the activists, companies, and medical professionals who are preying on children for profit.”
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