Did the AMA Release a Statement Cooling Support for Trans Youth Surgeries?
Leading Off: The New York Times and NPR release contradictory American Medical Association statements, and California AG Rob Bonta sues a children’s hospital for ending gender affirming care.
by Assigned Media
The Trump regime celebrated in response to a statement released Tuesday by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, asserting that gender affirming surgery be deferred until at least the age of 19. The group’s statement referenced the widely discredited Cass Review from the UK. This position, and the regime’s endorsement of it, were met with immediate backlash, with people across the internet responding to it in outrage. Plastic surgery including breast reductions and enhancements are performed on cisgender minors for cosmetic and mental health purposes.
Following the ASPS’s statement, the New York Times, as well as numerous right-wing publications, claimed the American Medical Association has released a statement agreeing with ASPS. However, the AMA has not released any publicly available announcement, and the NYT did not provide any supporting link. The excerpt NYT quoted read “In the absence of clear evidence, the AMA agrees with ASPS. that surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood.”
Following the NYT story, Becker’s Hospital Review quoted a slightly different statement from the AMA, which read, “In the absence of clear evidence, surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood. Treatment decisions should be made between the physician, patient and family based on the best medical evidence and clinical judgment.”
In a similar statement to NPR, the AMA said, “the AMA supports evidence-based treatment, including gender affirming care,” going on to say “surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood.” Confusingly, neither of these latter statements endorsed the position of the ASPS. According to the AMA, these statements do not represent a change in policy but a clarification of their prior position. This clarification lines up with existing guidance by WPATH, with regards to age for gender affirming surgery.
In a major first, California AG Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit against a California children’s hospital for discontinuing gender affirming care for minors. The hospital in question, Rady Children’s Hospital, recently cut access to gender affirming care for its patients up to the age of nineteen, capitulating to the demands of the Trump regime.
In the suit Bonta argues that the hospital is in violation of a contract it signed last year in a merger with Children’s Hospital of Orange County. The angle of this suit comes seemingly as a way of avoiding pushback from the Trump regime’s opposition to gender affirming care, framing it as an issue of contract law rather than one of civil rights.
Rob Bonta is one of a number of AGs from Democrat run states that has been consistent in defending the rights of trans Americans, having joined in a number of coalitions of AGs in lawsuits, statements, and briefs in support of trans rights.
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