Calif. senate committee kills bill to fund trans hormones, breast and genital amputation for minors
A California bill that would have given millions in state funds to pay for experimental medications and surgical procedures for gender-transitioning both teenagers and adults has been killed in committee Tuesday.
The Senate Health Committee announced Tuesday that AB 2218, the Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund, would not be considered for the remainder of the year.
The bill would have funded experimental treatments such as drugs that block normal puberty in gender-confused minors, prescriptions for opposite-sex hormones, and surgical procedures that amputate breasts and genitals, and remove reproductive organs such as the uterus and ovaries. The bill originally asked for $15 million to start the fund, but that figure was later scrubbed from the text of the proposal.
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AB 2218 had previously passed in the Assembly, the lower chamber, mostly on party lines with little debate.
Dr. Richard Pan, who chairs the Senate committee, revealed that the controversial measure would not be heard in their final committee hearing.
“The people of California spoke, and the Senate Health Committee listened,” said California Family Council President Jonathan Keller, in a press release sent to The Christian Post on Tuesday.
“Children and young adults with gender dysphoria deserve true compassion. We are grateful that California lawmakers chose not to fund mutilating surgeries and sterilizing hormones that cause irreversible damage.”
Keller added in a follow-up email to CP on Wednesday that they are cautiously optimistic about the recent action by the senators.
"Despite an aggressive smear campaign against those who even question transgender ideology, more and more brave people are refusing to be silenced," he said.
"Even unconventional allies like author J.K. Rowling are finding the collateral damage of transgenderism impossible to ignore. We pray California legislators will continue to see the dangers of condemning children and young adults who struggle with gender dysphoria to a lifetime of sterility and artificial hormones.”
The California Family Council was among several groups that reached out to the nine members of the Senate committee to discuss the irreversible damage done to bodies that have been mutilated by such surgeries.
Some of the CFC activists also distributed copies of journalist Abigail Shrier's new book,Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, which was released last month. Shrier's work investigates the myriad harms young girls are experiencing as a result of rapid-onset gender dysphoria, a peer contagion that often results in many teenaged girls taking testosterone and undergoing double mastectomies. Demand for double mastectomies among girls who self-identify as transgender has risen significantly in recent years along with the ascendency of transgender politics.
Dr. Quentin Van Meter, an Atlanta-based board-certified pediatric endocrinologist, who CP interviewed in December 2018 about the harms of Lupron when used as a puberty blocker in gender dysphoric children, testified against the bill in the state Assembly earlier this year.
The doctor told legislators during the hearing that children who are prescribed cross-sex hormones for gender confusion have “significant mental health issues” that continue even after hormone use. He also warned that the state would be sued in the coming years for funding such treatments since they cause sterility, destroy healthy tissue, and lead to other permanent damage.
