This week a Senate hearing was held to discuss the process as Congress determines whether to ban such procedures, reports CBN News.
Chloe Cole, a de-transitioner who calls attention to the danger of “gender-affirming care” for minors, testified at the hearing, saying that “the peace and self-acceptance” she was promised never came.
Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) serves on the Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which held the meeting. Speaking on the “Washington Watch” program, he says that only some Democrats acknowledge the harm of these procedures, even after hearing from Cole (shown right).
“At best, some of them would acknowledge that it was medical malpractice. A lot of us probably think it's medical malpractice at a much grander scale,” Husted states.
At the hearing, Shannon Minter from the National Center for LGBTQ Rights argued that it’s not the government’s place to make the parent’s medical decisions for their child.
However, Cole countered by saying that doctors don’t give parents much choice but to agree to the transition procedure. She explains that her parents were sold the lie that if they didn’t let her transition, then she could commit suicide.
“When you hear her painful story, you can see the pain that she's still going through. You realize that this is not something that you should be doing as a 13-year-old because you're going through lots of changes in your life,” Husted states.
This type of procedure for a 13-year-old just makes no sense, he says. Democrats’ argument, that the government shouldn’t stand between a person and their doctor in making healthcare decisions has him perplexed.
“I found it stunning because we make all kinds of decisions, as it relates to children, the government does, about what people can do with their lives, whether you smoke, you drink,” says Husted (shown left). “The idea that we would not have a compelling interest to worry about a 13-year-old being misled by an industry who promotes gender transition surgeries was a pretty stunning approach to that conversation.”
The point made at the hearing, he believes, was that the federal government, and government in general, has a role in protecting children.
“There are people who are promoting these surgeries, and permanent transition surgeries for children really should not be something you do to a child. I think that there are going to be lots of conversations about laws prohibiting these kinds of surgeries for children because of the irreversible health effects that occur,” Husted states.
However, Husted doesn’t think Democrats to get on board. He emphasizes the difference between adults and children.
“The idea that adults can do with their bodies what they want, we can have a debate about that, but that's a different issue,” says Husted. “These are children, and in this particular case (Cole), her parents were not given all the information. She was not given all the information about what this does because they're (Democrats) really part of an advocacy of an ideology that really is just leaving children in harm's way.”
