Just to belabor the obvious: Kids aren't capable of making the same decisions adults are. That's why we don't let them buy booze, or guns, or let them sign contracts, or let them vote.
Kids below a certain age lack the judgment and the emotional stability to make some decisions; that's why it is generally accepted that parents, not children, have the final say in medical treatments. Some things, like permanent, life-altering medical procedures, shouldn't be allowed at all on minors.
Unless you're in one of the states that allow the practice of "gender-affirming" treatments on minors. We've been over this ground before. These treatments are irreversible, life-changing, and unnecessary. But that hasn't stopped some facilities from carrying them out, even here in red Alaska. But now there's a new database that shows the state of the law in each of the fifty United States, and which facilities are carrying out these treatments.
In an editorial released Wednesday, Must Read Alaska's Suzanne Downing has the details:
The StopTheHarmDatabase.com catalogs pediatric sex change-related services, including surgeries, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers, at U.S.-based medical facilities between 2019 and 2023. The data is searchable by state and facility.
“This new project from Do No Harm proves the lies from the medical establishment and radical politicians who argue that cases like mine are rare,” said Do No Harm Senior Fellow and Patient Advocate Chloe Cole, who spoke in Alaska in 2023 as a guest of the Alaska Family Council. “The stats in this database represent thousands of kids who are being treated like Guinea pigs for unproven, and sometimes dangerous, medical experiments. I hope politicians and parents alike use this database to see where these treatments are happening and protect their children from being rushed into irreversible, life-altering treatments.”
This may well prove to be a good tool for parents and advocates for children's health - actual health, not "gender-affirming" health care.
See Related:
The Stop the Harm Database carries an appropriate name. It references the ancient Greek caution Primum non nocere, "First, do no harm," an admonition that is broken beyond recognition by the practice of administering permanent, life-altering treatments and surgeries to healthy children, especially given recent research indicating that most of these children will resolve on their own without permanent, life-altering treatments.
What's more, the Stop the Harm folks have stripped away the pretense and have documented the enormous amounts of money in this practice:
In the United States between 2019 and 2023:
- 13,994 minors underwent sex change treatments
- 5,747 minors had sex change surgeries
- 8,579 minors received hormones and puberty blockers
- 62,682 sex change prescriptions were written for minors
Total Submitted Charges $119,791,202
That's a lot of money being made on treatments that are harmful and yield no permanent benefit.
On the Stop the Harm Database home page, you can select your state, and get a summary of the laws in your location concerning gender-affirming treatments for minors, and which facilities are carrying out these treatments; not the worst resource to point out to your state and local representatives if this issue comes up where you live.
Just for fun, I looked up my state - Alaska - and learned that the Great Land has not banned the administering of "gender-affirming" care to minors, although (and I'm speculating here) part of the reason is that since the database started tracking, only 55 Alaskan minors have been so treated. That's not a huge number, and while I can't say I'm pleased about it, likely, this number even in conservative Alaska isn't drawing a lot of notice; people are more concerned with the Biden administration shutting down most of the North Slope to gas and oil exploration and extraction.
It's also important to note that 18 of those patients - nearly a third of the total - were not treated in Alaska, but in New Hampshire's Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, with another 16 treated at the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. Our local facility, the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, is not listed as having conducted any such procedure.
Knowledge is power. Being informed before writing, talking to, or confronting local or national-level politicians at town halls or other possible events is critical. Use this resource. Learn what's happening in your state - and how much money is being spent on it. I'd like to think that this social contagion, like so many others, will eventually fade away, but I would rather see it get a little kick in the rear.
