Mental health experts in Europe continue to be troubled by the practice of giving puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria.
In a recent letter to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Psychoanalytic Society expressed “great concern” over the use of drugs that block puberty in boys and girls.
The society’s letter calls the practice of giving puberty blockers to children “experimentation.”
The letter notes that gender-identity is self-identified, which makes it difficult to evaluate scientifically, and it calls for more rigorous, scientific discussion about gender dysphoria in children.
The Italian Psychoanalytic Society is the latest group in Europe to voice concerns about giving puberty blockers to children.
In 2021 a major hospital in Sweden announced that it would no longer give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids.
Last year the U.K.’s National Health Services closed its Tavistock gender clinic that gave puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children for many years. Many families have indicated their children were subjected to sex-reassignment at that clinic despite an obvious lack of scientific evidence in favor of the procedures and inadequate mental health screenings for children with gender dysphoria.
A gender-identity clinic in Scotland faces similar accusations from former patients who say healthcare professionals rushed them into sex-change procedures.
Concerns about puberty blockers are growing in the United States as well.
Research published just last month calls into question the original studies that encouraged doctors to give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children with gender dysphoria.
And last summer the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finally added a warning label to puberty blockers in America after biological girls developed symptoms of tumor-like masses in the brain.
That is part of the reason why the Arkansas Legislature has taken steps to protect children with gender dysphoria.
In 2021 the Arkansas Legislature overwhelmingly passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act. The SAFE Act is a good law that protects children in Arkansas from cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and sex-reassignment surgeries. However, the law has been tied up in court since the summer of 2021. We expect a decision over its constitutionality in the coming months.
Right now lawmakers are considering S.B. 199 by Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R – Branch) and Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville).
This good law clarifies that a child who undergoes a sex-change procedure can sue the healthcare provider who performed procedure if the child suffers any physical, psychological, or emotional injury as a result.
Our state laws should protect children from dangerous sex-reassignment procedures, and they should provide children and their families with legal recourse if they are injured by a sex-change procedure.
Laws like the SAFE Act and S.B. 199 help do exactly that.
