RFK Jr. Tells Doctors to Discard Unscientific Guidelines Promoting Child Gender Transitions

The Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter to health care providers urging them to discard discredited research on child gender transitions.

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy told health care providers, risk managers, and state medical boards to heed his department’s recent review of child sex changes which determined the irreversible procedures can cause significant harm, including sterilization.

“The Hippocratic Oath lays down the foundational commitment for the medical profession: ‘First, do no harm,'” Kennedy wrote. “The Review makes clear that ‘the evidence for benefit of pediatric medical transition is very uncertain, while the evidence for harm is less uncertain.’ For this reason, the Review states that when ‘medical interventions pose unnecessary, disproportionate risks of harm, healthcare providers should refuse to offer them even when they are preferred, requested, or demanded by patients.'”

Providers should disregard the “World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People,” Kennedy said.

WPATH, a controversial organization that transgender advocates and health agencies use to justify transgender medical interventions, frames itself as the leading expert organization on medical care for people who identify as transgender. It has faced criticism for advocating experimental practices that ignore serious concerns about informed consent and long-term side effects.

WPATH’s standards of care were “fraudulent” and “marked *a clear departure from the principles of unbiased, evidence-driven clinical guideline,” Kennedy told health care providers.

HHS’s review of transgender interventions for minors “employs the tools of evidence-based medicine, widely recognized by health authorities worldwide as the foundation of high-quality care, and assesses the evidence underpinning the use of hormones and surgeries for minors.”

HHS released a report May 1 detailing the dangers of experimental transgender medical interventions euphemistically referred to as “gender-affirming care.”

According to the executive summary, the HHS review found that most children will grow out of their gender dysphoria: “The natural history of pediatric gender dysphoria is poorly understood, though existing research suggests it will remit without intervention in most cases. Medical professionals have no way to know which patients may continue to experience gender dysphoria and which will come to terms with their bodies.”

Kennedy urged providers to read the review, and said he expects them to update their treatment protocols and training “to ensure our nation’s children are protected from harm.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, praised Kennedy’s move.

“As a doctor, I am extremely concerned that medical organizations continue to push irreversible gender transition procedures for children against scientific data,” he said in a statement.

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