Sen. Mike Lee, R-Ut., introduced legislation on Tuesday to prevent the federal government from funding sex change research on children, according to a press release.
The Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act will outlaw funding for research that subjects children to hormonal treatment or sex organ mutilation surgeries.
“The Federal Government should never fund research that harms kids,” Lee said. “This bill will protect taxpayers from funding spurious research, but more importantly, it will protect kids from the permanent damage this irresponsible research can produce.”
Some doctors give puberty blockers to children who claim to experience gender dysphoria.
Puberty blockers do not merely halt puberty to give children more time to decide about their sexual orientation, as gender ideologues claim.
Instead, they cause irreparable damage in children, including infertility and other permanent developmental defects.
Puberty blockers also have not been connected to mental health improvements.
Then, as children enter their late teenage years, doctors transition them to male or female sex hormones, which further disfigure their bodies.
Jessica Anderson, executive director at Heritage Action for America, said the Left has seized upon growing pains that society has exacerbated and turned them into medical experiments.
“Unproven, irreversible procedures related to gender transitions for children do more harm than good, as research shows that 80 to 95 percent of children with gender dysphoria no longer feel distressed by their bodies after puberty,” she said.
Some children are then subjected to so-called sex reassignment surgery, but since sex cannot be reassigned, these children are castrated or mutilated and made infertile.
The Obama administration concluded in 2016 that sex organ mutilation surgeries “did not demonstrate clinically significant changes or differences in psychometric test results.”
Doreen Denny, vice president of government relations Concerned Women for America LAC, said the National Institutes of Health has been promoting these experiments for years.
“Under the direction of Dr. Francis Collins, NIH has fueled the promotion of reckless gender experimentation on youth, approving irreversible treatments for children as young as 8,” Denny said. “This is not science, it’s medical scandal.”
Three Republicans co-sponsored Lee’s bill: Mike Braun, R-Ind., James Lankford, R-Okla., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
