Jun 28, 2022 09:21 PM
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/gender-...erimental/
INTRO: In 2022 alone, fifteen states introduced a total of 25 bills intended to restrict access to gender-affirming (GA) care to trans children and adolescents. (“Trans,” a common abbreviation for “transgender,” is used here as an umbrella term to describe people whose gender identity does not align with the gender to which they were assigned at birth, and GA care includes medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical care intended to affirm trans people in their gender identity.) Some of these bills even go so far as to criminalize GA care; for example, the Alabama law would make it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for medical providers found “guilty” of prescribing gender-affirming puberty blockers and hormones to people under age 19. As a result of these legislative efforts, over 58,000 trans youth could potentially lose access to GA care, depending on how many become law and in which states.
The predominant theme of these bills is the claim that GA care is “experimental.” This false claim is commonly used as the primary justification for outlawing such care. Indeed, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Ohio bills even share the very same name, the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, and the preambles of many of these bills characterize GA care as not just experimental but harmful, while also making false scientific claims about biology, sex and gender, gender dysphoria, and the psychological and medical care of gender dysphoria. In this, these bills are reminiscent of the strategy that antivaxxers have used to demonize COVID-19 vaccines in which they portray them as “experimental” and therefore dangerous, even to the point of making false claims that these vaccines violate the Nuremberg Code.
For example, Ohio HB454, Arkansas HB1570, and Louisiana HB570 are bills that are essentially largely copy-and-pasted from each other, and all three state that the use of GA hormones in “biological females”—terminology that is inaccurate, as explained here—results in an increased risk of breast and uterine cancers. Evidence is limited for these claims. Indeed, in available studies, transmasculine people (assigned female at birth—or AFAB—people who are on gender-affirming testosterone) have been found to have, if anything, a lower risk of breast cancer and endometrial cancer and certainly no increased risk of ovarian cancer compared to cis women. This is just the start of the bad and cherry-picked science used in these bills to justify outlawing GA care.
The bills also state:
This assertion is, quite simply, untrue. A systematic literature review of research from 1991 to 2017 noted 52 studies showing overall improvement in the well-being of trans people following GA medical and/or surgical interventions, four studies showing mixed or null findings, and zero studies that GA interventions cause overall harm... (MORE - details)
RELATED (scivillage):
A Transgender Controversy
Could good conditions persist if we worked just one day a week? Yes!
INTRO: In 2022 alone, fifteen states introduced a total of 25 bills intended to restrict access to gender-affirming (GA) care to trans children and adolescents. (“Trans,” a common abbreviation for “transgender,” is used here as an umbrella term to describe people whose gender identity does not align with the gender to which they were assigned at birth, and GA care includes medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical care intended to affirm trans people in their gender identity.) Some of these bills even go so far as to criminalize GA care; for example, the Alabama law would make it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for medical providers found “guilty” of prescribing gender-affirming puberty blockers and hormones to people under age 19. As a result of these legislative efforts, over 58,000 trans youth could potentially lose access to GA care, depending on how many become law and in which states.
The predominant theme of these bills is the claim that GA care is “experimental.” This false claim is commonly used as the primary justification for outlawing such care. Indeed, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Ohio bills even share the very same name, the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, and the preambles of many of these bills characterize GA care as not just experimental but harmful, while also making false scientific claims about biology, sex and gender, gender dysphoria, and the psychological and medical care of gender dysphoria. In this, these bills are reminiscent of the strategy that antivaxxers have used to demonize COVID-19 vaccines in which they portray them as “experimental” and therefore dangerous, even to the point of making false claims that these vaccines violate the Nuremberg Code.
For example, Ohio HB454, Arkansas HB1570, and Louisiana HB570 are bills that are essentially largely copy-and-pasted from each other, and all three state that the use of GA hormones in “biological females”—terminology that is inaccurate, as explained here—results in an increased risk of breast and uterine cancers. Evidence is limited for these claims. Indeed, in available studies, transmasculine people (assigned female at birth—or AFAB—people who are on gender-affirming testosterone) have been found to have, if anything, a lower risk of breast cancer and endometrial cancer and certainly no increased risk of ovarian cancer compared to cis women. This is just the start of the bad and cherry-picked science used in these bills to justify outlawing GA care.
The bills also state:
Quote:The risks of gender transition procedures far outweigh any benefit at this stage of clinical study on these procedures.
This assertion is, quite simply, untrue. A systematic literature review of research from 1991 to 2017 noted 52 studies showing overall improvement in the well-being of trans people following GA medical and/or surgical interventions, four studies showing mixed or null findings, and zero studies that GA interventions cause overall harm... (MORE - details)
RELATED (scivillage):
A Transgender Controversy
Could good conditions persist if we worked just one day a week? Yes!