Policymaker FAQs
The American College of Pediatricians is joined by dozens of other organizations and thousands of medical professionals from around the world who are calling on the United States to put an immediate halt to the current social, chemical and surgical interventions that are being done to children all in the name of “transgender care” and enter into a full, transparent review of these interventions and the research in order to determine evidence based care for these children suffering from gender dysphoria. A return to evidence based care includes counseling and other mental health services and physicians taking a “do no harm” approach in caring for their patients.
Gender clinics within the US have largely adopted protocols promoted by The Endocrine Society, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). These protocols were based on two Dutch studies and have come to be known as the “Dutch Protocol”. Recently, a review of these studies was done that revealed how flawed they were and that they never should have been used to formulate medical protocol. The methodology of the research was biased in three specific ways: (1) case selection: only the most successful cases were included in the results; (2) measurement of outcomes: in fact, the tool used to measure “resolution of gender dysphoria” was not appropriate and should have completely invalidate the study; and (3) confounding: because psychotherapy comingled with hormonal and surgical interventions, it was not possible to separate out the effects.
In addition to disputing the studies, the authors “discuss the significant risk of harm that the Dutch research exposed, as well as the lack of applicability of the Dutch protocol to the currently escalating incidence of adolescent-onset, non-binary, psychiatrically challenged youth, who are preponderantly natal females.” [1]
Even before the discreditation of the Dutch protocol, many other countries were stopping these so-called “Gender Affirming” treatments of minors.
Just as countries around the world are pausing and re-evaluation their current interventions for gender dysphoria, many states are passing legislation which restricts social, medical and surgical intervention and instead promoting a measured approach of psychotherapy and emotional support for the affected children. However, a portion of this legislation is currently held up in the judicial system.
Additional Information:
Fact Sheet International Trends
The practice of medicine, and the delivery of healthcare to a population depends greatly on the stability of civilization. The primary purpose of the government is to protect a civilization. As policymakers, you play an important role in maintaining a culture of life, liberty and human dignity. You can do this by introducing or supporting legislation that protects minors from these life-altering, experimental transgender interventions that also seek to remove the rights of parents. We will help provide you with the resources you need to do so. We are the only professional pediatric medical organization speaking out about the harms of the transgender ideology movement and calling for robust medical discourse to address the problems arising from the increased incidence of children suffering from gender dysphoria.
We urge you to Oppose Gender Transition Procedures for Minors. As stated over and over again in testimony by ACPeds co-chair of the Adolescent Sexuality council, Dr. Andre Van Mol, MD, “Gender transition procedures (GTP) imperil already at-risk gender dysphoric youth with experimental and unproven hormonal and surgical gender procedures, which medicalize prematurely and permanently. Transition procedures are not proven effective, not proven safe, do not reduce suicides, and are not the standard of care for gender dysphoria. Comprehensive literature reviews are driving an international pushback against GTP in favor of intensive psychological evaluation and support, and the lawsuits over the harms of transition affirming interventions have begun. GTPs are out of step with evidence-based care for gender dysphoric youth. “
Please click here to view Dr. Van Mol’s example testimony on the harms of Gender Transition Procedures
We recommend that policymakers advocate for bolstering psychotherapy resources to treat minors with thorough mental health assessments, promote legislation that requires informed parental consent protections for medical interventions, and regulate medical and surgical interventions to prevent minors from receiving life-altering hormones and irreversible sex change surgeries.
You may contact the ACPeds, and we will do our best to connect you with a pediatrician who can offer testimony during legislative hearings.
Please see our policymaker resources including our expert testimony and amicus briefs by clicking here.
ENDNOTES
[1] E. Abbruzzese, Stephen B. Levine & Julia W. Mason (2023): The Myth of “Reliable Research” in Pediatric Gender Medicine: A critical evaluation of the Dutch Studies—and research that has followed, Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2150346