This week Congressman Troy Nehls will introduce the “Stop Child Abuse Act,” seeking to rescind the Executive order signed by President Biden on June 15, which prohibits individual state governments from banning the use of gender transition therapies in minor children and removes the states’ right to govern independently.
Biden signed the Executive Order on Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals as part of his administration’s plan to further the cause of the LGBTQI+ community in America.
According to the executive order, the administration seeks to “protect LGBTQI+ individuals’ access to medically necessary care,” including gender transition therapies such as hormones and surgical intervention for individuals suffering from gender dysphoria.
The administration, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), now classifies hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgeries as a proper treatment for the mental health concerns of LGBTQI+ youth.
The order further states that “200 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of HHS shall develop and release sample policies for States to safeguard and expand access to health care for LGBTQI+ individuals and their families, including mental health services.”
All major medical associations now recommend gender-affirming care to treat gender dysphoria.
The entirety of the Biden Administration has come on board with these ideas included within the President’s Executive order. Other statements from inside the administration have previously been released.
In March, a document titled “Gender Affirming Care and Young People” was issued by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs (OPA).
In the document, the HHS describes suitable treatments for transgender youth, including” ‘top’ surgery to create male-typical chest shape or enhance breasts” and “‘bottom’ surgery … on genitals or reproductive organs, facial feminization or other procedures.”
“Medical and psychosocial gender-affirming healthcare practices have been demonstrated to yield lower rates of adverse mental health outcomes, build self-esteem, and improve overall quality of life for transgender and gender diverse youth,” the OPA release states.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) released a similar document titled, “Gender-Affirming Care Is Trauma-Informed Care.”
The NCTSN went a bit further than the OPA document, expressing support for hormone therapy for minors. In it, the NCTSN release says that proper treatments “may include evidence-based interventions such as puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones.”
“Providing gender-affirming care is neither child maltreatment nor malpractice. The child welfare system in the US, charged with ‘improv(ing) the overall health and wellbeing of our nation’s children and families,’ should not be used to deny care or separate families working to make the best decisions for their children’s wellbeing. There is no scientifically sound research showing negative impacts from providing gender-affirming care,” the release states.
However, Nehls and many other national leaders disagree with this sentiment. The choice to subject a minor to hormone therapy or gender reassignment surgeries that permanently alter their bodies prior to an age where they can give informed consent is seen as abuse.
Most recently, Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to begin investigating and reporting instances of minors undergoing sex-change procedures or therapy.
The order by Abbott follows statements by the state’s attorney general saying state law characterizes the practices as child abuse.
Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a formal statement that the procedures are considered child abuse under Texas law. He called the practices “monstrous and tragic,” saying it is “obvious harm” in a post on Twitter.
While Abbott’s order in Texas has now come under scrutiny and faces legal barriers for enforcement, the conservative leadership continues to fight for the wellbeing of the children in their state.
At least 13 states, including Texas, have introduced bills to limit access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth, prohibit transgender girls and women from competing on girls’ sports teams, and bar the instruction of LGBTQ+ issues in school.
Biden’s Executive Order aims to nullify such efforts to protect children in these states and across the nation.
The Stop Child Abuse Act would rescind President Biden’s Executive Order to protect America’s children from gender-affirming healthcare’s devastating and irreversible consequences.
NEHLS Draft by Michael Robison
According to the American College of Pediatricians, no single long-term study demonstrates the safety or efficacy of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for transgender-believing youth.
Puberty blockers may cause depression and other emotional disturbances related to suicide. The package insert for Lupron, the number one prescribed puberty blocker in America, lists “emotional instability” as a side effect and warns prescribers to “Monitor for development or worsening of psychiatric symptoms during treatment.”
Worse yet, puberty blockers can cause permanent severe side effects, including osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment, and sterility when combined with cross-sex hormones.
All too often, physically healthy transgender-believing girls are given double mastectomies at 13 and hysterectomies at 16. And in the same fashion, their male counterparts are referred for surgical castration and penectomies at 16 and 17.
Many medical organizations worldwide, including the Australian College of Physicians, the Royal College of General Practitioners in the United Kingdom, and the Swedish National Council for Medical Ethics, have characterized these treatments in children as experimental and dangerous.
Swedish psychiatrist Dr. Christopher Gillberg has said that pediatric transition is “possibly one of the greatest scandals in medical history” and called for “an immediate moratorium on the use of puberty blocker drugs because of their unknown long-term effects.”
Beyond gender transition therapy for children, Biden’s Executive Order directs agencies to advance policies for LGBTQ+ inclusive learning environments at schools. The trend of over-sexualizing children in schools has been a heated debate in America.
Recently a school in Arizona issued a questionnaire to students, which included questions asking what students think caused their heterosexuality, how they decided they were heterosexual, why heterosexual relationships are unstable, and whether they had considered that heterosexuality was a phase.
The growing issue of teaching sexual orientation, gender identity, and more to the youngest of America’s students has resulted in many states taking direct action. In March, Florida passed HB 1557, officially called the Parental Rights in Education bill. The bill prohibits Florida’s school system from teaching kindergarten through third-grade students about sexual orientation or gender identity.
The bill came under scrutiny by the far-left, who dubbed the measure the “Don’t Say Gay Bill.” Governor Ron DeSantis and his leadership were openly criticized by celebrities, corporations like Disney, and the White House for a bill aimed at protecting small children from inappropriate sexual content in schools.
The Executive Order also seeks to establish a committee to expand federal data collection on sexual orientation and gender identity—another move to pry more deeply into the private lives of citizens.
Nehls’ proposed Stop Child Abuse Act would end all current White House support of these agendas included in the Executive order. It would restrict the ability of corporations, schools, medical providers, and any other influential entity to force gender ideologies on America’s youngest citizens.
Congressman Nehls’ primary focus is protecting America’s children, ensuring States’ rights to govern are not usurped by the White House and that the agenda of one group cannot influence the actions and outcomes of every American.