The Florida Health Department is pushing for a ban on “gender affirming” care for trans youth, along with blocking Medicaid recipients from receiving the “treatment”.
On Thursday, the Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who oversees the Health Department, sent a letter to the Florida Board of Medicine, who oversees doctors in the state, recommending that they stop various forms of “gender affirming care” being used for children who believe that they are transgender.
“While some professional organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society, recommend these treatments for ‘gender affirming’ care, the scientific evidence supporting these complex medical interventions is extraordinarily weak,” Ladapo wrote.
“The current standards set by numerous professional organizations appear to follow a preferred political ideology instead of the highest level of generally accepted medical science,” he continued. “Florida must do more to protect children from politics-based medicine. Otherwise, children and adolesents in our state will continue to face a substantial risk of long-term harm.”
The letter, which follows guidance issued by Ladapo against the use of puberty-blockers, hormone therapy, and surgical procedures for minors in April, which also fact checked federal advice on transgender care for children, was sent only hours after a report from the DeSantis administration recommended “gender affirming” treatments not be covered by Medicaid in the Florida.
Guidance of this magnitude requires a thorough, unbiased review of the evidence.
It was irresponsible of @HHSGov to release guidance that failed to meet the most basic level of academic rigor. @HealthyFla will step up to fill the void left by the feds. https://t.co/SUF9kzj7hs pic.twitter.com/Ldae3FgiSG
— Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD (@FLSurgeonGen) April 20, 2022
The 46-page report covers various pieces of medical literature on the subject of supposed transgender care, and concludes that not only do studies suggesting that such services stop suicide attempts are “either are either low or very low quality and rely on unreliable methods such as surveys and retrospective analyses,” but that the available evidence suggests the opposite:
“Numerous studies… identify poor methods and the certainty of irreversible physical changes. Considering the weak evidence supporting the use of puberty suppression, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures when compared to the stronger research demonstrating the permanent effects they cause, these treatments do not conform to GAPMS [generally accepted professional medical standards] and are experimental and investigational.”
Current research suggests that individuals with gender dysphoria have “higher proportions of autism spectrum disorder, history of trauma or abuse, fetal hormone imbalances [which the report notes may be caused by phthalates found in plastics], and co-existing mental illnesses.” Another potential cause is “social factors such as peer and online media influence.”
The report notes that none of the studies provide a definitive cause, but that the research “does raise questions about whether treatments with permanent effects are warranted in a population with disproportionately high percentages of ASD, behavioral health problems, and trauma.”
REPORT: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration Thursday asked the state board regulating doctors to essentially ban transition-related measures for transgender minors, according to a letter obtained by NBC News.
— Election Wizard 🇺🇸 (@ElectionWiz) June 3, 2022
In a footnote, the report acknowledges that the concept of gender being “disconnected from biological sex” originated in the mid-20th Century, and was publicised by Dr John Money, who embarked on a highly unethical experiment on twin baby boys, where one was transitioned to become a girl. The boy never identified as such, but it was promoted as a success by Money:
“[Money] promoted his conclusions across the scientific community, concealing what actually unfolded. As a result, Money’s ideas on gender fluidity served as a basis for performing procedures on children with hermaphroditic features or genital abnormalities. The case reveals how the understanding of a concept (e.g., gender) at any given time can lead to incorrect medical decisions with irreversible consequences.”
The report further addresses an open letter, led by six professors at the University of Florida’s College of Medicine, which criticised Ladapo’s original recommendations against gender affirming care in April. The report criticised their use of “weak studies” that end up being the “foundation for the clinical organizations’ guidelines that [they] tout as a gold standard”:
“When it comes to evidence demonstrating whether treatments with irreversible effects are beneficial… the burden of proof is on those advocating for this treatment, not on those acknowledging the need for further research. This raises the question concerning how much academic rigor these professors are applying to practice guidelines released by clinical organizations and whether they also apply the same level of rigor to novel treatments for other conditions (e.g., drugs, medical devices).”
With the two-pronged approach, it seems likely that legislation will not be required to heavily restrict such gender-affirming treatments in Florida, speeding up the process to a full ban which DeSantis said in April he would support. “There’s a concerted effort in society to push these kids in to do some type of medical intervention,” he told conservative podcaster Lisa Boothe.
