During the Dec. 4 oral arguments in U.S. v Skrmetti, Tennessee’s solicitor general, Michael Rice, was taking his turn before the nine justices. He urged the court to understand why the State of Tennessee is preventing gender-confused children from undergoing body-altering surgeries and hormone treatment.
“The question,” he observed, “of how many minors have to have their bodies irreparably harmed, for unproven benefits, is one best left– “
“I’m sorry, counselor,” Sotomayor, interrupting him in a callous tone, replied. “Every medical treatment has a risk, even taking aspirin.”
The liberal justice went on to observe there will always be a “percentage of the population, under any medical treatment, that's going to suffer a harm.”
Walker Wildmon, who leads AFA Action, says the justice made an “absurd” comment last week to Tennessee’s solicitor general.
“And factually untrue, by the way,” he tells AFN. “It's provable that these surgeries are a thousand times more risky than taking over-the-counter pain meds.”
Sotomayor, 70, was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama.
Another “falsehood” uttered by Sotomayor, Wildmon says, is her claim that other children are “receiving relief” from the surgeries and hormone treatments, which are referred to as “gender-affirming care” by their supporters.
“To call what's happening to these minors as ‘relief,’ that's just not true,” Wildmon argues.
Editor's Note: AFA Action is a division of the American Family Association, the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
