(LifeSiteNews) — An article in MedPageToday that purports to debunk “misinformation” about “gender-affirming care” actually pushes false information itself.
“Misinformation Obscures Standards Guiding Gender-Affirming Care For Trans Youth,” the headline from the Kaiser Family Foundation Health News states, along with a photo of Governor Ron DeSantis looking angry and yelling.
The news article, which is really an opinion piece advocating for the chemical and surgical mutilation of children, claims it will address “misconceptions and misinformation that conflate treatments and strip trans youth of essential care,” which it said Republican politicians use.
First, the article is flawed in that it argues the impossible — that someone can change their gender.
Second, the article cites a study with identified flaws. “[A] study of 104 young trans and nonbinary patients at the Gender Clinic of Seattle Children’s Hospital found those who had started on puberty blockers or hormone therapy had 60% lower odds of depression and 73% lower odds of self-harm or suicidal thoughts than peers who hadn’t received those treatments,” the article states. But left out is that University of Washington media relations members purposefully kept quiet on the flaws because the study had received positive coverage, as Jason Rantz reported, based on emails that he obtained.
Independent journalist Jesse Singal raised concerns about the use of data, which prompted UW media officials to make edits to their press release.
Singal, after listing a variety of quotes that showed the researchers trumpeting their study, wrote:
What’s surprising, in light of all these quotes, is that the kids who took puberty blockers or hormones experienced no statistically significant mental health improvement during the study. The claim that they did improve, which was presented to the public in the study itself, in publicity materials, and on social media (repeatedly) by one of the authors, is false.
He said the study’s authors refused to hand over the data.
Additionally, the Kaiser News article also claimed that it is “misinformation” to argue it is easy for kids to get on transgender drugs and surgeries.
“One common misbelief heard when legislation is discussed is that gender-affirming medical interventions are provided immediately to any trans or nonbinary kid who walks into a gender clinic,” the article reported.
It cited the media’s favorite “expert,” Dr. Jack Turban, who gets paid $400 per hour to testify in support of the chemical and surgical mutilation of kids. Turban’s own research has faced criticism from both conservatives and liberals, with Singal calling one of Turban’s paper a “disaster.” “In a field known for its weak methodologies and even weaker scientific conclusions, Turban’s study sets a new low,” Leor Sapir, with the Manhattan Institute, wrote in response to one of Turban’s papers.
But there is evidence that it can be very easy for children to access transgender drugs and surgeries. Consider that Matt Walsh’s producer Gregg Re was able to get approved for an orchiectomy after just a 22-minute phone call with a company that sells letters of support for surgery for $150. “I’m not gonna be a person that’s gonna stop them from accessing care. I’m not there to determine if they’re ‘trans enough.’ I’m gonna write them this letter,” Ari Groner told Plume Health. The company is one of the largest facilitators of transgender drugs and surgeries, so if one person was able to easily fool a letter writer, it seems reasonable that others could slip through who do not meet the established criteria.
Helena Kerschner, a woman who once presented herself as a man, told Michael Knowles that Planned Parenthood approved her for testosterone injections after just a 20-minute interview. Camille Kiefel, an Oregon woman who once lived as “non-binary,” said that just two short online meetings were all it took for her to get approved for a double mastectomy.
The article also falsely states that “Puberty blockers are fully reversible medications. They work like a pause button on puberty,” quoting Dr. Mandy Coles, the co-director of the Child and Adolescent Transgender Center for Health at Boston Medical Center.
That is not true. Dr. Michael Laidlaw is an endocrinologist who has conducted extensive reviews of the studies on transgenderism. One example alone from him should suffice to show that “puberty blockers are fully reversible” is an inaccurate statement.
“When puberty blockers are used on a young girl, along with the drop in bone density relative to her peers, her pelvis will be ‘frozen’ in a childlike configuration,” he wrote in 2020. “It is not known if stopping puberty blockers by a certain age might still allow a window of opportunity for the female pelvis to reach optimal configuration for birth.”
“A pelvis that is not optimally configured for birth could put mother and baby at increased risk for obstructed labor,” he explained. “Obstructed labor is a condition in which the baby does not leave the pelvis during childbirth due to being physically blocked, even if the uterus is contracting normally. Complications include the baby not getting enough oxygen, which may result in death. For the mother, risks include infection, postpartum bleeding, uterine rupture, and obstetrical fistula.”
Transgender drugs and surgeries have at their core the flawed premise that individuals can change their sex — or what we might call “misinformation.”