Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Supreme Court Will Have To Consider Biden Admin’s Meddling In Medical Guidelines Pushing Child Sex Changes For Kids

Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine speaking at the virtual press conference. The Pennsylvania Department of Health today confirmed as of 12:00 a.m., March 20, that there are 83 additional positive cases of COVID-19 reported, bringing the statewide total to 268. County-specific information and a statewide map are available here. All people are either in isolation at home or being treated at the hospital. Harrisburg, PA- March 20, 2020 (Flickr/Governor Tom Wolf)

The Supreme Court will have to grapple with how the Biden administration shaped the guidelines it cites to push child sex changes.

As the high court weighs the government’s challenge to Tennessee’s ban on child sex change procedures, multiple amicus briefs filed this week will bring its attention to the glaring lack of evidence behind the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) standards the Biden-Harris administration cites as evidence the procedures are medically necessary.

Alabama, which also faced a lawsuit over the state’s similar ban, explained in an amicus brief filed Tuesday that discovery in its case “uncovered that not only does the WPATH emperor have no clothes but that senior HHS officials and ‘social justice lawyers’ acted as the organization’s tailor.”

“Through years of litigation defending its own age limits against challenges by private plaintiffs and the United States, Alabama has exposed a medical, legal, and political scandal that will be studied for decades to come,” the state wrote. “The federal government, ‘social justice lawyers’ from prominent activist organizations, and self-appointed experts at the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) conspired to abolish age limits for sterilizing chemical treatments and surgeries.”

Department of Health and Human (HHS) Services Assistant Secretary Levine pressured WPATH to remove age recommendations, court records revealed.

Alabama slammed the DOJ for attempting to shut down its case while asking the Supreme Court to review Tennessee’s case, which had “only a preliminary record and no discovery.” The state’s brief is one of multiple that details the lack of evidence backing the guidelines the government cites.

In a scathing Supreme Court brief supporting Tennessee’s youth gender law, Alabama’s Attorney General lays bare: WPATH admitted SOC8 had ‘little to no evidence’ for youth treatments, then removed age limits after U.S. health official’s pressure. WPATH coordinated to hide these… pic.twitter.com/9abI7YJ8YV

— Genspect (@genspect) October 15, 2024

Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti wrote in the state’s brief that “the government’s one-sided telling of the evidence misreports the medical landscape.”

The brief details how WPATH’s credibility has been continually undermined, including by European countries that have reversed course on transitioning minors, a four-year review of transgender medical studies conducted in England and WPATH’s own decision to “abandon” evidence reviews that could undermine its litigation goals.

“Now, with WPATH’s credibility shot, the government turns…to other organizations—the AAP and the American Medical Association—that push the same policies,” Skrmetti wrote. “The Constitution does not require States to play whack-a-mole with whatever advocacy organization’s stance suits challengers’ needs.”

A brief by 22 states backing Tennessee wrote there is “so much still unknown and debated it would be perilous to declare the issue settled.”

“The Constitution does not make the judiciary the final arbiter of ongoing scientific debates,” the states wrote. “And whatever else one might say, there is no doubt that a scientific debate continues over whether puberty blockers and hormones are safe and effective for children.”

Missouri, citing a whistleblower who exposed the state’s largest transgender clinic for “bullying” parents into allowing their children to undergo irreversible medical procedures, explained clinics often fail to adhere even to WPATH’s “loose standards.”

“[Jaimie] Reed has revealed that the actual practice of gender transition interventions is starkly different from the sanitized façade portrayed by the United States,” Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey wrote in the brief.

Despite recent revelations, organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association continue to side with the government, urging the Supreme Court to block Tennessee’s ban.

“The widely accepted view of the professional medical community is that gender-affirming care is the appropriate treatment for gender dysphoria and that, for some adolescents, puberty blockers and hormone therapy are necessary,” the groups wrote in a brief filed last month.