The Biden administration mentioned this week that it opposed gender-affirming surgical procedure for minors, essentially the most specific assertion thus far on the topic from a president who has been a staunch supporter of transgender rights.
The White Home announcement was despatched to The New York Occasions on Wednesday in response to an article reporting that employees within the workplace of Adm. Rachel Levine, an assistant secretary on the Division of Well being and Human Companies, had urged an influential worldwide transgender well being group to take away age minimums for surgical procedure from its therapy pointers for minors.
The draft pointers would have lowered the age minimums to 14 for hormonal therapies, 15 for mastectomies, 16 for breast augmentation or facial surgical procedures, and 17 for genital surgical procedures or hysterectomies. The final guidelines, released in 2022, removed the age-based recommendations altogether.
“Adm. Levine shared her view along with her employees that publishing the proposed decrease ages for gender transition surgical procedures was not supported by science or analysis, and will result in an onslaught of assaults on the transgender group,” an H.H.S. spokesman mentioned in a press release on Friday night.
Federal officers didn’t elaborate additional on the administration’s place concerning the scientific analysis or on Adm. Levine’s position in having the age minimums eliminated.
The administration, which has been supportive of gender-affirming look after transgender youth, expressed opposition solely to surgical procedures for minors, not different therapies. The procedures are normally irreversible, critics have mentioned.
