(Adnkronos) – The United States will not “finance, sponsor, promote, assist or support” minors under the age of 19 who intend to change sex. This is stated in the executive order signed by US President Donald Trump, which reduces medical assistance for minors who intend to start a transition from one sex to another. The document, titled ‘Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation’, contains limitations on access to medical care for gender affirmation, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgery for minors under the age of 19.
Basically, explains NBC, the order prohibits federal funding for this type of assistance to minors, limits grants for research and education to medical schools and hospitals. It also orders all federal agencies to revoke the guidelines of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (Wpath), a non-profit association dedicated to medical assistance for transgender people. With the motivation of ”putting an end to the practice of relying on junk science” because Wpath, the order argues, ”lacks scientific integrity”.
“Today, across the country, healthcare professionals are mutilating and sterilizing a growing number of easily influenced children with the false and radical claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” the executive order reads. The document adds that an increasing number of children will regret receiving this care and will be “often trapped in lifelong medical complications” and sterilization.
“As a result – continues the executive order – it is the policy of the United States not to finance, sponsor, promote, assist or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another and to strictly enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-changing procedures”. Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal advocacy group, has vowed to fight the executive order. In the US, leading medical organizations, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association support access to transitional care for minors and oppose restrictions.
