Gender-Affirming Surgery Takes a Hit
By Ray Ross
Perhaps you saw the recent news that the Supreme Court of the State of New York ruled against a psychologist and a medical doctor who removed the breasts of a girl when she was fifteen. The Court awarded the girl two million dollars.
The fall-out from this ruling is significant. It set a huge legal precedent for victims of transgenderism who were pushed into hormone treatments and sex change operations.
Insurance companies care about risk. Every lawyer in the country can now sue. Malpractice insurance will at least triple for those involved in this onerous business. Teachers and clergy who advocate for transgender surgeries may also be held accountable.
Boston Children’s Hospital was the first major medical center to offer hormone and “gender-affirming” surgery. That was in 2007. Since that time thousands of children have undergone these procedures.
Today we have a whole industry that has preyed on these vulnerable children. The passage through puberty is challenging and confusing. Many of these children are the victims of sexual abuse or dysfunctional homes.
As Mary Rice Hasson, J.D., Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., has written: “[These children] are hurting and they’re looking to fit in. They’re looking for a way to feel better. And for some of them, they start to believe this lie that the problem really is that they were born in the wrong body and all we have to do is change the body and magically, all of the depression, the anxiety and feelings are going to disappear.”
Hopefully with the New York State Supreme Court ruling the psychologists, doctors, surgeons and hospitals who have pushed this non-sense, this lie, often driven by greed, will back off. What they are doing is child abuse, pushing irreversible treatments on vulnerable kids for profit.
As Catholics, we believe that God has given us the body he intended for us to have. If you know a child in this situation, please provide the love, the understanding, the prayers and the help needed to get through this difficult time.