2025 | Week of December 8 | Radio Transcript #1648

In the past fifteen years, the number of minors receiving gender transition medical services has skyrocketed. Despite numerous concerns, many trusted physicians and medical institutions have promoted the false message that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transition surgeries are the necessary physical cure to the mental ailment of gender dysphoria. Rather than encouraging confused teens to learn to accept their God-designed bodies, they have loudly supported the message that mutilation is the only pathway to true healing.

Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services (or HHS) published the peer-reviewed final version of their report detailing the outcome of transgender drugs and surgeries for minors. Predictably, the report confirmed, as it did in the first version published in May, that what some call “treatments” actually cause significant and at times irreversible harm to children. The study boasts a qualified list of authors including two bioethicists, two psychiatrists, a philosopher, an evidence-based medicine specialist, an endocrinologist, and two researchers.

In response to these findings, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, “The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics peddled the lie that chemical and surgical sex-rejecting procedures could be good for children. They betrayed their oath to first do no harm, and their so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. That is not medicine — it’s malpractice.”[ii]

Despite its qualified authors, the results of this study have induced furious backlash from individuals and organizations in support of these dangerous measures — the American Psychiatric Association (or APA), for one. But the HHS has successfully refuted each of the APA’s criticisms. For example, in its review of the study, the APA recommended sixteen additional studies for the HHS to include in their final report. Ironically, twelve of these studies were already part of the report, three did pertain to the contents of the report, and the last one was not published until after the HHS published the original copy of the report. Such unfounded criticisms cause one to wonder if the reviewers from the APA actually took the time to read the report they were reviewing.[iii]

News sources have called out the HHS because some of the study’s reviewers had previously spoken in opposition of these false remedies.

In their report, the HHS presented loud supporters of so-called “gender affirming care” like the APA with a clear opportunity to address real and serious concerns surrounding these dangerous “treatments.” Rather than actually addressing these concerns, the APA provided weak — and at times inaccurate — arguments against the report. Unfortunately, mainstream media sources have latched onto the APA’s erroneous statements, furthering the false notion that this report contains faulty information.

The HHS report refutes the lie that children must go through a life-altering transition to heal from gender dysphoria. While many might characterize those who oppose so-called “gender affirming care” to be unloving, the truth is exactly the opposite. We deeply care about children experiencing gender confusion, and we want them to know the truth: God designed their bodies with a purpose, He loves them just as they are, and they don’t have to mutilate their bodies to make peace with the gender they were born with. This report demonstrates, once again, that science agrees with God’s design. Given the reality of biology and the overwhelmingly negative results of these counterfeit “therapies,” it is neither loving nor kind to promote them – especially for children.

For too long, members of the medical community have supported what they call transgender “treatments” for minors with little to no evidence that they provide any benefit. This report leaves no room for doubt: pushing minors towards gender-confusing therapies causes lasting harm.

For Wisconsin Family Council, this is Daniel Degner reminding you that God, through the prophet Hosea, said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

[i] https://dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com/hhs-finalizes-report-sex-rejecting-procedures-harm-minors/

[ii] https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-releases-peer-reviewed-report-discrediting-pediatric-sex-rejecting-procedures.html

[iii] https://dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com/apa-failed-critiques-hhs-report-discrediting-sex-rejecting-procedures-for-minors/

[iv] https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/wellness/story/hhs-finalizes-report-gender-affirming-care-youth-medical-127685179

[v] https://dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com/hhs-finalizes-report-sex-rejecting-procedures-harm-minors/