ACPeds.org| July 10, 2024
Original article can be viewed HERE
Atlanta, GA – Today, the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over its rule that establishes so-called “gender-affirming care” as the new, although unproven, “standard of care” for those who express discomfort with their biological sex. Indeed, the rule requires doctors to provide and promote “social transitions,” use of pronouns inconsistent with biological sex, experimental use of puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormones for “gender-transition” purposes, and perform harmful, sterilizing procedures on adults and children to appear to be the opposite sex, even if state law restricts these procedures. Doctors are even required to inaccurately code their patient’s charts based on gender identity rather than biological sex. ACPeds is joined by the States of Missouri, Utah, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota to challenge this new rule.
Dr. Jill Simons, Executive Director of ACPeds released the following statement:
“The American College of Pediatricians is filing this lawsuit against HHS because doctors should never be forced to violate their sound medical judgment and perform life-altering and sterilizing interventions on their patients. Our doctors take an oath to do no harm, but the Biden administration’s rule forces them to violate this oath and perform procedures that are harmful and dangerous to our patients– vulnerable children. What the Biden Administration is calling for is wrong and unlawful.”
ACPeds filed a public comment against this rule in October 2022. ACPeds also launched the Doctors Protecting Children Declaration in June 2024 setting out the scientific evidence demonstrating the best way to care for children who express discomfort with their biological sex and how the proposed procedures are harmful to patients and are not shown to improve adolescent mental health.
To arrange an interview with a representative of the American College of Pediatricians please contact connect@acpeds.org.
