Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) confronted Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Xavier Becerra at a Senate budget hearing about how the Biden administration is promoting life-altering surgeries for children — including breast and genital surgeries.
“Could you explain what irreversible top and bottom sex-change surgeries are and why that is on the portal as well,” Braun said at the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies hearing.
“Senator there as you’ve just indicated, there are many different types of procedures that can be deployed,” Becerra said. “What I will say to you is again, in any case, no individual, no patient, will proceed forward unless his or her doctor has advised of the procedure. And it is considered by the FDA and others who have to go ahead and certify a medicine or procedure to be safe and effective.”
“So I’ll try to distill it into a more simple farm. In what case would it be appropriate to perform irreversible sex-change surgery on kids?” Braun said.
“Those decisions are made by that individual in consultation with physician and caregivers, and no decision would be made without having consulted appropriately,” Bacerra said.
“You know, I think the government shouldn’t be pushing or have an out there on a portal that moves you towards irreversible sex change therapy, and I think we just need to think about it carefully,” Braun, who called the surgeries “almost grotesque.” “Because we’re navigating into territory that we’ve never done before as a government.”
There are now promotional videos on TikTok for getting top surgery. Keep your kids away from TikTok. It’s cancer pic.twitter.com/sUUqJBTNjG
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 8, 2022
The Hill reported on the exchange:
Braun’s office confirmed in a statement to The Hill that the senator was specifically referring to a fact sheet the HHS’s Office of Population Affairs released on gender-affirming care and young people last month.
The page describes gender-affirming care as a supportive form of health care spanning multiple “services that may include medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical services for transgender and nonbinary people.”
Some examples listed included reversible care like social affirmation, which includes adopting gender-affirming hairstyles, clothing and gender pronouns; hormones that pause pubertal development; partially reversible care like hormone therapy; and nonreversible care like gender-affirming surgeries, such as “top” and “bottom” surgeries. The former surgery, the sheet said, is “to create male-typical chest shape or enhance breasts,” while the latter involves “surgery on genitals or reproductive organs.”
The exchange comes after Breitbart News reported the Biden administration’s guidance on transgender treatment for children:
“Presence of affirming support networks is critical for facilitating and arranging gender affirming care for children and adolescents,” the guidance states, asserting that “lack of such support can result in rejection, depression and suicide, homelessness, and other negative outcomes.”
The second page of the guidance lists four different categories of “affirming care.” The first is “Social Affirmation,” which it says should be used at “any age or stage.” That includes adopting “gender-affirming hairstyles, clothing, name, gender pronouns, and restrooms and other facilities.”
The next is “Puberty Blockers,” and the third category is “Hormone Therapy,” which the guidance says should be used in “early adolescence onward.” And finally, the guidance lists “Gender-Affirming Surgeries,” which it says should be used “typically” in adulthood or on a “case-by-case” basis in adolescence.
“Kids going through this are having a hard time, we should be maybe focusing more on mental health and not things that are irreversible,” Braun said at the hearing. “And, I think, leading the HHS — it might be a little more important to be a little more definitive, rather than making it look like well, a laissez-faire approach and whatever happens, happens. I think that’s out of sync with most of America, and it seems to me it’d be wise to maybe back up a little bit.”
But Becerra characterized the life-altering treatment of people who have not reached adulthood as helpful. “If we can make a life better for someone in America, we should, especially if, in consultation with their physician, they approve of those procedures,” Becerra said.
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