Declaration: American Doctors Call for End to Promotion of Experimental Drugs and Surgeries to Treat Children Expressing Gender Issues

"Gender ideology ... leads to the inaccurate view that children can be born in the wrong body." - Doctors Protecting Children Declaration

A coalition of doctors and other professionals representing numerous healthcare groups urged establishment medical organizations in the United States to “immediately stop the promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over their biological sex.”

During a press conference Thursday morning at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Doctors Protecting Children called upon colleagues from other medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, The Endocrine Society, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, to instead “recommend comprehensive evaluations and therapies aimed at identifying and addressing underlying psychological co-morbidities and neurodiversity that often predispose to and accompany gender dysphoria.”

The coalition – physicians, nurses, behavioral health clinicians, other health professionals, scientists, researchers, and public health and policy professionals – came together to express its “serious concerns about the physical and mental health effects of the current protocols promoted for the care of children and adolescents in the United States” who experience distress with issues related to their biological sex.

Additionally, the doctors’ groups urged physicians and healthcare professionals across the nation to sign onto their declaration that affirms biological sex is a “dimorphic, innate trait,” that “[g]ender ideology, the view that sex (male and female) is inadequate and that humans need to be further categorized based on an individual’s thoughts and feelings described as ‘gender identity’ or ‘gender expression’, does not accommodate the reality of these innate sex differences.”

Dr. Jill Simons, board-certified pediatrician and executive director for the American College of Pediatricians

“Medical decision making,” the declaration asserts, “should not be based upon an individual’s thoughts and feelings, as in ‘gender identity,’ … but should respect biological reality and the dignity of the person by compassionately addressing the whole person.”

Doctors Protecting Children also encouraged physicians and others who are members of organizations that promote so-called “gender-affirming” treatment to urge their professional associations to “adhere to the evidence-based research now available.”

The coalition’s primary co-signers include:

• Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM)

• American Academy of Medical Ethics

• American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC)

• American College of Family Medicine (ACFM)

• American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds)

• Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)

• Catholic Medical Association (CMA)

• Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA)

• Coalition of Jewish Values

The declaration is issued in the wake of the final report by a team led by British pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass that concluded medically invasive treatment for gender dysphoria in children is founded on “remarkably weak” evidence.

Cass’ systematic review of studies also came on the heels of leaked internal documents from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) that revealed WPATH medical providers admitting children – and even their parents, in some cases – are unable to comprehend the far-reaching consequences of the drug and surgical treatments the “gender medicine” professionals recommend, particularly with regard to sterility. Yet, young people are prescribed them anyway.

Physicians and healthcare professionals can sign the declaration released by Doctors Protecting Children here.

Lumen-News reached out to the Biden Department of Health and Human Services for comment but received no immediate response.