Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and other state legislators have spent the last few weeks making an effort to limit gender affirming care for minors. Bailey said that there’s a “woke left-wing ideology masquerading as medicine,” and called transgender care centers “shadowy.”
Dr. Maddie Deutsh, a professor and medical director at the University of California - San Francisco, joined KMOX to talk about Bailey’s actions, and what they mean for kids in Missouri.
“You know, I'm a little confused about what they're referring to because there's nothing ideological or radical about this,” Deutsch said on Total Information AM.
She pointed out that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) — as well as many mainstream medical societies, like the American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, American Colleges of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychiatric Association, and the Global Endocrine Society — all support gender affirming care as it’s medically necessary.
“Legislation that's looking to specifically inhibit or restrict access to care really directly contradicts decades of research and empirical data that we have,” she said. “And there's recently a poll from the Trevor Project found that 86% of trans and nonbinary people report that anti-transgender legislation such as this, and these tweets, and his rhetoric, and bluster negatively impacts their mental health.”
“It doesn’t help anybody, it just makes people’s lives worse,” she added.
One of the medical procedures the state is trying to ban is the use of puberty blockers, which are used for trans kids alongside cisgender kids who may start puberty earlier than normal. Deutsch clarified that puberty blockers aren’t given out easily.
“You have to be at a certain stage of puberty with certain physical changes to your body that have already occurred, and undergo a detailed behavioral health assessment by qualified professionals before being treated with these medications, which have been around for a long time,” she said.
Deutsch added that it’s frustrating for doctors who go through rigorous training, conduct extensive research, and an oath to do no harm to be restricted by elected officials.
“It raises concerns, larger picture in society. What's next, you know?” she said. “What other decision making between a patient and their provider are politicians going to come in and try to regulate? It's just not how things are done in this country. And it's very alarming.”
Hear more from Dr. Maddie Deutsch on recent efforts to restrict gender affirming care:
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