Should Bans on Puberty Blockers Be Upheld by the Supreme Court?

Parents can strengthen their families, communities, states, and nations by insisting that their government have family-friendly policies. Many children and teenagers are given puberty blockers that “may have had adverse effects on children’s bone density, cognitive performance, emotional stability, and future fertility,” according to National Health Service England and as reported by Joseph McKinnon at The Blaze.

McKinnon further reported that the National Health Service England “announced in March that minors in the United Kingdom will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at so-called gender-identity clinics.” The reason given by the same organization was that there was not enough evidence that the puberty blockers were safe. The United Kingdom used emergency powers to ban the use of puberty blockers on minors. It is past time for the United States to do the same.

Blaze News previously reported that the drugs in question, luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists, also known as GnRHa, have long been used to chemically castrate sex offenders.

According to the medical advocacy group Do No Harm’s Stop the Harm database, between 2019 and 2023, at least 13,994 American minors underwent sex-change treatments and over 8,500 received hormones and puberty blockers. The Free Press noted in August that the leading provider of sex-change hormones for young adults in the United States is Planned Parenthood.

Puberty blockers, rebranded for kids with gender confusion, have been characterized as safe and effective by LGBT activists and pharmaceutical reps. This narrative did not, however, survive the release of the Cass Review earlier this year, at least on the other side of the Atlantic.

Dr. Hilary Cass, an acclaimed British medical doctor who previously served as president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, was commissioned by NHS England to investigate the U.K. sex-change regime and its youth-facing services. The penetrating investigation revealed that where so-called gender science is concerned, “there is not a reliable evidence base upon which to make clinical decisions, or for children and their families to make informed choices.”

Extra to pointing out that so-called gender-science is largely based on research of “poor quality,” demonstrating “poor study design, inadequate follow-up periods and a lack of objectivity in reporting of results,” the Cass Review demolished the case for using puberty blockers, stressing the uses “are unproven and benefits/harms are unknown.”

The review found not only that puberty blockers compromise bone density but have no apparent impact on so-called gender dysphoria….

James Palmer, the NHS medical director for specialized services, stated, “Evidence reviews by NICE and NHS England, supported by Dr Cass, clearly showed there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty suppressing hormones for the treatment of gender dysphoria or incongruence which is why the NHS decided that they would no longer be routinely offered to children and young people.”

Of the 28 states where Republicans control the legislature, 24 red states have successfully passed bans to protect children from puberty blockers, hormone therapies, or sex-change mutilations, reported the New York Times. Robert Hinkle, a Clinton-nominated federal judge, suggested that such Republicans had actually acted on “old-fashioned discriminatory animus.”

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week about a puberty blocker ban in Tennessee. Should the high court uphold the ban when issuing its decision in United States v. Skrmetti sometime next year, similar bans will be reinforced across the country.

Parents in the United States should be hoping and praying that the justices of the Supreme Court will uphold the ban. Gender dysphoria is a mental condition that needs mental therapy, not a physical condition that can be fixed with puberty blockers and/or surgery. Parents and other U.S. citizens must become activists to protect children and adolescents from adults who want to hurt them. The best way to accomplish this task is to use legal means to ban such treatment. By doing so, parents can strengthen their family, community, state, and nation.