OPINION:
Three Democrat-led states—Washington, Oregon and Minnesota—and three doctors filed a lawsuit this month in opposition to President Trump’s executive order that would ban gender-affirming care for minors (“Trump’s ban on gender-transition drugs, surgeries for youth hit with lawsuit,” Web, Feb. 4). Opposing this executive order represents more than a mere misguided legal challenge; it actively enables the systematic chemical and surgical mutilation of our nation’s children.
Let’s be clear about what “gender affirming care” really means: It’s a deceptive label for an aggressive medical protocol that subjects children to puberty-blocking drugs that disrupt natural development, cross-sex hormones that can cause permanent infertility and other irreversible cosmetic operations. These life-altering medical interventions are being performed on children who lack the cognitive maturity to comprehend the long-term consequences. These are children who cannot legally consent to getting their ears pierced without parental permission, yet are being guided toward decisions that will permanently damage their bodies and future lives.
Parents are tasked with the sacred calling to protect their children from harm, not condone abnormal alterations in the name of false compassion. When state officials and medical personnel work to circumvent parental authority and advocate for children receiving damaging medical procedures, they are assaulting the very foundation of parental duties.
Families across this country must take a stand to protect one of our most vulnerable populations. America’s children are the future, and they deserve real health care, not damaging alterations masqueraded as treatment. Ultimately, this opposition lawsuit does not defend civil rights or a safe, evidence-based medical proceeding — it defends and condones nation-wide child abuse.
JIMMY MURPHY
Golden Valley, Minnesota
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