Pennsylvania bill could force doctors to perform experimental sex changes on patients

A Pennsylvania House committee passed a bill to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics in the state’s nondiscrimination law, and one Democratic state representative believes this should force doctors to prescribe puberty blockers and perform irreversible sex reassignment surgeries.

In video footage shared on Twitter by the Pennsylvania Family Council, Democratic Rep. Emily Kinkead was asked whether HB 300, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression, would force doctors to perform experimental sex changes on patients. Kinkead responded with an empathic “yes.”

“When we talk about are physicians going to be required to do X, Y, Z? Yes! If it does not harm, if it in fact helps people,” said Kinkead. “And when we deny gender-affirming care to people who do not identify with the gender that they were assigned at birth, that is causing harm.”

“And absolutely, we should be holding the doctors accountable who will deny life-saving care to people,” she added.

There is currently a huge debate in the medical world surrounding the issue of experimental sex changes for minors. Serious questions are being raised about the harm of performing irreversible interventions on children and adolescents who are still in a stage of identity development.

Several European nations have conducted systematic reviews of the scientific literature to support puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for young people suffering from gender dysphoria and all have reached the same conclusion: that the evidence is of extremely poor quality and the risks of medical intervention currently outweigh any perceived benefit.

This has led to Sweden, Finland, England, France, and Norway pivoting away from affirmation and medical intervention and returning to a more cautious psychotherapeutic approach to treating this vulnerable cohort of young people.

Numerous Republican states have followed suit, banning doctors from experimenting on children and adolescents.

Kinkead’s claim that so-called gender-affirming care is “life-saving” is also being called into question by experts around the world.

Psychiatrist Dr. Riitta Kaltiala, one of Finland’s leading experts in the field of gender medicine, recently called the transition-or-suicide narrative “purposeful disinformation” and “irresponsible.”

A 2016 paper recently surfaced documenting the death of a trans-identified teenager who was a participant in the original Dutch study upon which the entire child sex change experiment is based. The patient’s puberty was blocked very early, meaning the genitals remain undeveloped, making a standard vaginoplasty using penile skin was not possible. Surgeons had to perform a far riskier procedure using a section of the patient’s intestines which resulted in fatal necrotizing fasciitis.

While early puberty suppression has the benefit of allowing trans-identified males to “pass” well later in life, the major disadvantages are sterility, lifelong anorgasmia, and the need for a more complicated vaginoplasty surgery using a section of the colon.

According to parental rights advocate Megan Brock, the addition of gender identity and gender expression does not just impact medical decisions, but also also women’s sports, bathrooms, female dorms, meaning as denying trans-identified males access to these spaces would be legally considered discrimination.