(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) A Portland, Oregon, hospital is reportedly ready and willing to schedule sit-downs with very young children to discuss transgender treatment options.
According to a detailed online summary of its gender-related services at the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, “Medical treatment usually doesn’t begin until puberty. This is commonly age 10 or 11. We are happy to meet with you and your child before that, though.”
In offering these consultations as part of a treatment overview, Doernbecher seems have adopted the precepts of far-left gender ideology.
The Daily Caller, which broke this story, apparently archived the gender clinic page, however, presumably just in case it gets scrubbed or modified.
The hospital, which boasts that it offers “a full range of services for transgender and gender-nonconforming children and teens” is affiliated with the Oregon Health & Science University.
These services can include puberty suppressants, hormone therapy and so-called gender-affirming surgery as part of “a safe, welcoming and gender-affirming environment” at the Portland hub and at other locations in the state.
Critics of these interventions that obviously come with irreversibly life-changing consequences argue that this is child abuse, or worse.
About 10 Republican-led states have already banned or restricted such medical procedures for minors.
Blue states, such as Oregon, which are under the control of intrusive Democrats who have elevated identity politics above all else, are another matter entirely.
The Portland clinic indicates that it “accepts new patients through age 18” upon a referral from a pediatrician or another specialist and explains that it follows guidelines issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
Last year, WPATH announced that hormones could be started at age 14, two years earlier than the group’s previous advice, and some surgeries done at age 15 or 17, a year or so earlier than previous guidance.
The clinic’s information portal also offers how-to handouts about chest binding, puberty blockers and “safe tucking.”
Insofar as a potential gender transition scenario at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital is concerned, “Nowhere in the descriptions for children is an opportunity for these often depressed, anxious, perhaps autistic children to receive psychological counseling or psychiatric therapy to help [them] deal with the incredibly complex and difficult transition that the unit continuously advocates,” Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, the chairman of the Do No Harm nonprofit healthcare advocacy organization, told the Daily Caller.
