(John Ransom, Headline USA) Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is continuing to challenge the federal government and progressives, this time by ignoring the government’s advice to provide “gender affirming treatment” to youth.
Florida Department of Health pushes back on federal guidance on trans youth care – 850 WFTL https://t.co/hsSqW2bb86 #FDOH: gender transition should not be an option for children and people under 18 should not be prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy.
— 850 WFTL (@850WFTL) April 21, 2022
In a statement by Florida Health, the state health agency, the governor and the state’s surgeon general said that they would not recommending hormonal treatment and social treatment for children under the age of 18.
“A paper published in the International Review of Psychiatry states that 80% of those seeking clinical care will lose their desire to identify with the nonbirth sex,” said Florida Health’s statement.
The prohibition does not apply to children who were born with biochemical or genetically verifiable gender disorders.
DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw said that while the recommendations provide guidance to families, treatment options will still be decided between doctors, parents and children, and the guidance is not intended as a treatment ban.
“Physicians may use guidance from different authoritative sources, including government entities and professional associations, in determining the best course of treatment for their patients,” said Christina Pushaw, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Of course liberals are acting like their hair is been on set on fire because Florida dared to contradict the federal government.
Failure to follow the federal government directive has been characterized as “dangerous,” according to a statement by the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Attempts to restrict, challenge, or falsely characterize this potentially lifesaving care as abuse is dangerous,” said HHS in its transgender youth guidance, according to ABC News.
But Florida’s surgeon general said that the federal guidance lacks the most elementary respect for basic science and accused HHS of putting politics above the health of children.
“The federal government’s medical establishment releasing guidance failing at the most basic level of academic rigor shows that this was never about health care,” said Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, according to ABC.
Including its failure to follow the science, HHS also apparently can’t follow the English language, saying that “attempts block [sic] parents from making critical health care decisions for their children, create a chilling effect on health care providers.”
But as Pushaw mentioned, nothing in Florida’s guidance prevents parents for making any decisions that they think is in the best interest of the child.
It is only the HHS that is seeking to prevent parents from having choices.
