Dr. Jennifer Bauwens Unpacks HHS Study Finding No Strong Evidence to Support Transgender Procedures

LGBT, ,

Earlier this month Dr. Jennifer Bauwens, Director of Family Research Council’s Center for Family Studies, appeared on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” to highlight a new report from HHS regarding children with gender dysphoria.

The HHS study found no strong evidence supporting transgender procedures on children. Instead, medical experts say these children need mental and emotional support.

Over the past few years, it has become clear that the medical “consensus” regarding transgender procedures on children has been largely manufactured by pro-LGBT organizations.

Recently, the U.K.’s National Health Service announced it will start advising clinics to assess children who identify as transgender for mental health problems and other conditions.

The U.K. opted to shutter its transgender clinic and stop giving puberty blockers to children after whistleblowers revealed families were pressured into subjecting their children to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without adequate mental health screenings or informed consent.

During her interview on “Washington Watch,” Dr. Bauwens explained how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 409-page report further debunks the myth that children who disagree with their biological sex must undergo hormone treatments and sex-change surgeries.

All of this reminds us why Arkansas was right to pass the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act in 2021.

This good law protects children in Arkansas from being subjected to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries.

Unfortunately, the SAFE Act is currently tied up in court. However, given how medical evidence continues to show these procedures hurt kids, we believe our courts ultimately will uphold the SAFE Act as constitutional.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Detransitioners Tell Their Stories

Transgender, ,

A recent video from the Heritage Foundation highlights the regret that people often feel as a result of using puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries to transition from one gender to the other.

Some years ago, medical experts at Johns Hopkins stopped performing gender-reassignment procedures after discovering they did not help individuals who identify as transgender. Since 2021, we have seen growing concerns about children and young adults rushed through the transition process without adequate mental health evaluations and without proper informed consent.

The Heritage Foundation recently interviewed three people who used surgery and hormones to try to change genders before ultimately detransitioning and accepting their biological sex.

Stories like these remind us why it is so important to protect people from the harmful lies that transgender ideology promotes.

Public health officials in the U.S. and the U.K. have released stunning rebukes of the so-called “gender affirming care” Planned Parenthood and others offer.

Last year The British Medical Journal wrote that ”the advocacy and clinical practice for medical treatment of gender dysphoria [through puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery] had moved ahead of the evidence—a recipe for harm.”

These procedures can leave children sterilized and scarred for life, and doctors don’t know the long-term consequences they may have for children. That is why to date about half the states in the U.S. have passed laws protecting children from sex-change surgeries.

In 2021, Arkansas lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act.

The SAFE Act is a good law that prevents doctors in Arkansas from performing sex-change surgeries on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

Unfortunately, the SAFE Act is tied up in court, and a federal judge in Little Rock has blocked the state from enforcing it for now. However, we believe our courts ultimately will recognize that the SAFE Act is a good law and uphold it as constitutional.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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DEA Report Underscores How Marijuana Legalization Actually Fuels the Black Market

Marijuana

A new report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency underscores how marijuana’s legalization in some states has actually emboldened drug cartels and fueled the black market nationwide.

In its 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment released earlier this month, the DEA writes,

Cannabis growers in states where cultivation is legal are the main suppliers of illicit
marijuana markets in the rest of the United States, growing in excess of quotas and legal market
needs. . . .

Despite these measures, during the last two decades, the black market for marijuana has expanded significantly as Chinese and other Asian TCOs [transnational criminal organizations] have taken control of the marijuana trade. These organized crime groups, as well as Mexican cartels, are profiting from both illegal cultivation and sales, and from exploiting the “legal” market.

Over the past decade we have seen how legalization has actually emboldened drug cartels and increased the flow of illegal marijuana across America.

For example, last year, California’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force seized 154,000 pounds of illegal marijuana and destroyed some 236,000 illegal marijuana plants.

According to a recent news report out of Las Vegas, illegal marijuana sales in Nevada run approximately $242 million every year in the state.

Illegal marijuana operations often are believed to be tied to labor trafficking and violent crime — contributing to what some have dubbed “modern day slavery on American soil.”

Troublingly, Chinese organized crime is dominating black market marijuana in many states. The U.S. Department of Justice says Chinese drug cartels may be making millions of dollars from illegal marijuana in states like Maine, New York, Massachusetts, and elsewhere.

Much of the illegal marijuana that authorities in Arkansas seize on a regular basis actually comes from states that have legalized the drug.

Legalizing drugs — whether it’s marijuana itself or the THC and other substances extracted from cannabis — has not worked as intended in places like California. Arkansas should think twice before making the same mistakes these states have made.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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