New Zealand has become the latest country to stop prescribing puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria. The move comes as nations examine the risks and lack of long-term studies on these experimental treatments.
Starting in mid-December, doctors in New Zealand will no longer be allowed to prescribe these drugs to new patients, though those currently taking them can continue.
This decision puts New Zealand more or less alongside the U.K., Sweden, Finland, most states in the U.S., and other nations that have stepped back from so-called “gender-affirming care” for children.
Public health experts and policymakers have found that science simply does not support giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids. These drugs and procedures carry serious risks — including infertility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density, and cardiovascular problems.
As the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has demonstrated, the so-called “medical consensus” regarding transgender procedures on children has been largely manufactured by pro-LGBT activists.
Whistleblowers have come forward to testify about how they were rushed through gender transitions as children without understanding the procedures’ risks, consequences, or alternatives.
In January, President Trump signed an executive order prohibiting federal funding from being used for sex-change procedures on kids, and the federal government is soon expected to propose new rules that could help protect children from sex-change procedures nationwide.
Earlier this summer, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a public inquiry into whether U.S. doctors and clinics may have deceived parents and children about the risks of these procedures. The U.S. Department of Justice also subpoenaed doctors and medical facilities involved in performing sex-change procedures on minors.
In September, the U.S. Department of Justice sent Congress the federal Victims of Chemical or Surgical Mutilation Act. The proposed federal law would generally prevent doctors, hospitals, and clinics from performing sex-change surgeries on children or giving them puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.
In 2021, lawmakers in Arkansas passed the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act. This good law generally prohibits doctors from performing sex-change procedures on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. The SAFE Act has been upheld in federal court and is protecting children in Arkansas right now.
The fact that more countries are putting a stop to these transgender procedures proves that Arkansas was right to pass the SAFE Act in 2021. Other states should follow Arkansas’– and New Zealand’s — example by protecting children from experimentation.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
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