Puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones do sterilize children, hospital consent docs show
Consent documents from Children's Hospital Los Angeles that were made public this week reveal that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones used on gender dysphoric children do in fact cause sterility, contrary to repeated assertions made by some California Democratic lawmakers.
Democrats in the California state Senate have in recent days dismissed those who've warned that AB 2218, a bill under consideration, would fund the sterilization of physically healthy minors. They assert that such concerns raised by constituents amount to "fear-mongering."
AB 2218, the Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund, passed the Senate Health committee 7-1 on Aug. 11. If it's passed by both chambers and signed into law, the legislation would give taxpayer dollars to groups that fund medicalized experimental gender-transition practices such as prescribing cross-sex hormones and performing cosmetic gender surgeries on trans-identifying youth and adults.
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The informed consent documents from Children's Hospital Los Angeles — which has one of the largest transgender centers in the country — obtained by the California Family Council, reveal that the hospital has also warned patients and parental guardians that the drugs do indeed yield infertility in those who undergo the experimental procedures.
The consent forms to participate in the hospital's medical trial to research the effects puberty blockers have on children states in part: “If your child starts puberty blockers in the earliest stages of puberty, and then goes on to gender-affirming hormones, they will not develop sperm or eggs. This means that they will not have biological children.”
The statement is followed by an italicized and underlined sentence explaining that this is an important factor to consider before proceeding with chemical puberty suppression. The forms also warn about the risks puberty blockers have regarding bone density and development.
Another consent document for females taking male hormones states that it's "not known what the effects of testosterone are on fertility" and that even if they stop taking it "it is uncertain if you will be able to get pregnant again in the future.”
For males transitioning to appear more female, a similar warning of the adverse impact on fertility reads: “Sperm may not mature, leading to reduced fertility. The ability to make sperm normally may or may not come back even after stopping taking feminizing medication.”
State Sen. Connie Leyva, D-San Bernardino, asserted last week during committee hearings that she "felt bad for the people who were calling to ask us to vote 'No' because I do think they were misled. There is nothing in this bill that talks about sterilizing children. It really talks about health care for individuals who identify as transgender,” she asserted.
The bill states that state funds will be made available in the form of grants to hospitals, health care clinics, or other medical providers that are already engaged in "gender-affirming" services, including the administration of cross-sex hormones and gender surgeries to continue providing those services, or to outfits that will establish a program in cooperation with transgender organizations.
Another hearing for the bill is scheduled in the Senate Appropriation Committee suspense file for Thursday and will likely later head to the Senate floor for a vote.
The hospital's informed consent documents were obtained with the help of Judicial Watch, a conservative activist group that files Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to investigate government misconduct, Dr. Michael Laidlaw, an endocrinologist from Rocklin, told the California Family Council.
“They confirmed exactly what I suspected, that the hormones used for child and adolescent transition are causing sterility in addition to a host of other health problems,” Laidlaw added.
Laidlaw has previously testified in the legislature on other similar measures, and has warned legislators about the unethical practices going on within California medical institutions.
In 2018, he and others urged legislators to scrap AB 2119, a bill that ultimately became law and guarantees resources for so-called gender-affirmative treatments for children in the state foster care system who identify as transgender or nonbinary.
In a statement sent to The Christian Post Wednesday, Dr. James Dobson, president of the James Dobson Family Institute, called the bill "morally repugnant."
"It is beyond reprehensible that our government officials would actually set aside money to fund this evil assault on children and adults who are made in the image of Almighty God. These hurting individuals need our compassion and care — not a cocktail of drugs and disfiguring surgeries that could well cause irreversible harm to their bodies," he said.
"Children aren’t the only victims of such a bill. No rational and compassionate individual could possibly celebrate the mutilation of adolescents or adults. And yet this bill would fund procedures including double mastectomies on adolescent girls and genital amputations and reconstructive procedures for individuals older than 18. This isn’t the fulfillment of personal autonomy — this is the celebration of acts of cruelty."
In late July, it was announced that AB 2218 would not be taken up for consideration for the remainder of the year. But following pressure from transgender activists, legislators revived the bill. The bill originally asked for $15 million to begin the fund, but that figure was subsequently scrubbed from the text.
At the federal level, Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., introduced two bills last week, the Protecting Children from Experimentation Act and the End Taxpayer Funding of Gender Experimentation Act. The bills are being co-sponsored by several other Republicans in Congress.
"Our society has quickly ‘normalized’ gender experimentation under the guise of an ‘accepting’ political ideology rather than biological reality. Even more troubling, children are undergoing experimental treatments, like being injected with puberty-blocking hormones and cross-sex hormones, which have irreversible consequences, such as permanent sterility," LaMalfa said in a press release about his bills.
"As minors, children cannot vote, join the military, or open a bank account; it’s our job as a society, and especially parents, to protect them from making life-altering gender experimentation decisions that they may likely later regret.”
