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puberty blockers Archives – Concerned Women for America

Speak Up to Protect Children from Harm

By | South Dakota | No Comments

“It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.” Luke 17:2

 

Sanford Health, the “largest rural health care system in the United States,” along with The Transformation Project, will be participating in the 3rd Annual Midwest Gender Identity Summit on January 13, 2023. The event will be held at the Sanford Research Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

 

The Transformation Project is a non-profit whose mission is “supporting and empowering transgender youth.” They promote the lie that “men and women can change their gender.” They conduct events “where participants, including children, ritually ‘burn’ their ‘old name or pronouns.’”

 

According to the Transformation Project website, several of the Summit’s session topics include:

  • Supporting Your Two-Spirit & Native LGBTQ+ Patients and Coworkers
  • Learning to Address Implicit Bias Towards LGBTQ+ & 2S Patients
  • General Affirming Care and The Attitude of Affirmation in Assessment

Concerned Women for America (CWA) of South Dakota find these activities very disturbing, especially among a healthcare institution that takes an oath to “do no harm.” It is ironic that health care providers blatantly deny the science that tells us one cannot change their God-given sex. Children struggling with gender confusion should be protected from unethical medical interventions that ignore underlying causes and reject long-term health and well-being.

 

No long term, scientific research exists to support the safety or efficacy of sex reassignment treatments on children – in fact, there is evidence to the contrary. A 30-year study in Sweden showed a significant increase in heart disease and in the number of suicides, suicide attempts, and psychiatric hospitalizations in people a decade after they have undergone sex-reassignment surgery compared to a control group of people of the same age and sex.

 

To encourage attendance, “medical professionals” attending the event will be awarded professional education credits.

 

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

Contact Bill Gassen, President and CEO of Sanford Health, at [email protected] or by calling the Sanford Medical Center at 605-333-1000, and strongly urge him to cancel the January 13 Midwest Gender Identity Summit in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

 

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we pray for those struggling with gender dysphoria that they will believe the truth about Your design for them found in Scriptures and reject the lies of Satan.  Let them see truth in Your Word that says, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female He created them.” We ask for protection of the hearts and minds of all our children, and we pray for Christians to courageously and lovingly speak God’s truth about Your design for sexuality in a confused and needy world.   

 

Linda Schauer
State Director

Speak Up to Protect Children from Harm

By | North Dakota | No Comments

“It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.” Luke 17:2

 

Sanford Health, the “largest rural health care system in the United States,” along with The Transformation Project, will be participating in the 3rd Annual Midwest Gender Identity Summit on January 13, 2023. The event will be held at the Sanford Research Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

 

The Transformation Project is a non-profit whose mission is “supporting and empowering transgender youth.” They promote the lie that “men and women can change their gender.” They conduct events “where participants, including children, ritually ‘burn’ their ‘old name or pronouns.’”

 

According to the Transformation Project website, several of the Summit’s session topics include:

  • Supporting Your Two-Spirit & Native LGBTQ+ Patients and Coworkers
  • Learning to Address Implicit Bias Towards LGBTQ+ & 2S Patients
  • General Affirming Care and The Attitude of Affirmation in Assessment

Concerned Women for America (CWA) of North Dakota find these activities very disturbing, especially among a healthcare institution that takes an oath to “do no harm.” It is ironic that health care providers blatantly deny the science that tells us one cannot change their God-given sex. Children struggling with gender confusion should be protected from unethical medical interventions that ignore underlying causes and reject long-term health and well-being.

 

No long term, scientific research exists to support the safety or efficacy of sex reassignment treatments on children – in fact, there is evidence to the contrary. A 30-year study in Sweden showed a significant increase in heart disease and in the number of suicides, suicide attempts, and psychiatric hospitalizations in people a decade after they have undergone sex-reassignment surgery compared to a control group of people of the same age and sex.

 

To encourage attendance, “medical professionals” attending the event will be awarded professional education credits.

 

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

Contact Bill Gassen, President and CEO of Sanford Health, at [email protected] or by calling the Sanford Medical Center at 605-333-1000, and strongly urge him to cancel the January 13 Midwest Gender Identity Summit in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

 

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we pray for those struggling with gender dysphoria that they will believe the truth about Your design for them found in Scriptures and reject the lies of Satan.  Let them see truth in Your Word that says, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female He created them.” We ask for protection of the hearts and minds of all our children, and we pray for Christians to courageously and lovingly speak God’s truth about Your design for sexuality in a confused and needy world.   

 

Linda Thorson
State Director

Nance to American Girl: shame on you

By | News and Events, Vulnerable Children | No Comments

Penny Nance statement on American Girl’s book pushing puberty blockers:

 

“Shame on American Girl for teaching girls as young as three years old to hate their bodies.  What happened to teaching girls that they are beautiful just the way they are?” asked Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization. “Advocating that young girls consider altering their bodies through puberty blockers or surgery exploits vulnerable and impressionable children. In the same way that it would be dangerous to tell a young, underweight girl struggling with an eating disorder to consider gastric bypass surgery, why are we encouraging a young girl struggling with her female identity to mutilate her body? There used to be a time when parents trusted corporations like a doll company to send positive messages to their daughters, but unfortunately those days are gone. Parents need to stop buying goods from woke corporations pushing this dangerous and manipulative agenda on their children.” 

Nance: American Academy of Pediatrics are failing America’s families

By | News and Events, Press Releases, Sexual Exploitation, Vulnerable Children | No Comments

For Immediate Release: October 7, 2022
Contact:  [email protected] | (703)282-7320

 

American Academy of Pediatrics are failing America’s families

 Pushing “Gender-affirming Care” Risks Health of Children

 

Washington, D.C. – As the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) meets this weekend in Anaheim, California for its annual convention, Concerned Women for America (CWA), the nation’s largest women’s public policy organization representing women and families of all ages across every state in America, blasts AAP leadership for pushing radical experimental “gender-affirming” practices.

 

In a letter sent to the AAP’s President and President-elect, Concerned Women for America CEO and President Penny Nance questions its practices amid controversy over a resolution from member pediatricians demanding the AAP review research standards of treating children questioning their identity.  

 

“Under your leadership, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is failing children, adolescents, parents, and families,” reads the letter. “Your disregard for the mental, emotional, and physical harm of gender ideology being forced on children is evidenced by the alarming trend in so-called ‘gender affirming care.’ Pediatricians are trusted physicians for parents of a newborn child. Like any mother and father, they should know that babies are fully formed male or female humans, not ‘born in the wrong body.’ Any case of an intersex condition or disorder of sexual development is exceedingly rare.

 

“As doctors sworn to do no harm, it is tragic that you are on the side of defending harm to children. Your organization promotes the use of unapproved puberty-blocking drugs to slow the normal healthy development of a children’s body, bones, and brain for “gender exploration. These drugs have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration who has warned of serious side effects, including swelling of the brain, vision loss, and suicide ideation.

 

“Pediatricians should know that natural maturation is a critical part of a child’s health and well-being.  Doctors who understand normal childhood development should know it is better allow children to grow up with a healthy body intact, not mutilate a child’s body to conform to his or her developing mind – which is not fully developed until after the pediatric years,” the letter reads. 

 

Most alarming, the American Academy of Pediatrics is failing to allow any rigorous challenge to today’s destructive prevailing orthodoxy about so-called “gender affirming care.”

 

Nance’s letter cites the hypocrisy of AAP President Dr. Moira Szilagyi’s claim in The Wall Street Journal that “It doesn’t push medical treatments or surgery; for the vast majority of children, it recommends the opposite.” A Reuters special report has revealed a skyrocketing rise in use of puberty blockers and hormones, as well as mutilating surgeries.  From 2019-21, 776 double mastectomies were performed on 13–17-year-old girls under the banner of “gender affirming care.” 

 

For a full text of Nance’s letter can be found HERE. To schedule an interview with Penny Nance, please contact [email protected].                            

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Concerned Women for America is the Nation’s largest public policy organization for women; we are dedicated to promoting Biblical values and Constitutional principles. More information is available at ConcernedWomen.org

Wanted: Governors of Courage to Stand Against Radical Gender Ideology

By | Defense of Family, Erasing Women, Legislative Updates, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation, Vulnerable Children | No Comments

By Doreen Denny, Vice President of Government Relations

In the past two weeks, we have seen significant progress in the fight against radical gender ideology in the states. Importantly, many state legislatures are embracing these debates generating greater awareness of the realities and harms at stake. They are also underscoring the necessity of having governors of courage. 

Last week, Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-Arkansas) joined Gov. Tate Reeves (R-Mississippi) in signing the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” into law. These are notable victories following Idaho’s enactment of the first such bill last year signed by Gov. Eric Little (R-Idaho) and immediately challenged, as expected, in a lawsuit leveled by the ACLU. 

Gov. Kristi Noem (R-South Dakota) did the opposite. She responded to the passage of a popular House Bill promoting continued fairness in women’s sports with a “form and style” veto capitulating to noisy activists and dubious NCAA threats. Noem demanded the South Dakota legislature rewrite big portions of the bill, including removing protections for college women athletes. By putting a price tag on winning her signature, she effectively torpedoed the bill causing female athletes in her state to lose out. 

Big majorities of the public agree on protecting women’s sports for female athletes, so why the fear?   Assuring fair play for women and girls based on biological sex, not gender identity, should be something on which we can all agree. It should be a matter of biological fact, physiological advantage, and basic civil rights, not partisanship or political activism. Male athletes should not be competing in women’s sports, regardless of how they identify.

The governor’s surrender in South Dakota contrasted acts of courage by governors in Mississippi and Arkansas. It will take governors of courage across America to turn the tide toward regaining women’s rights as athletes and against hyped threats from left-wing activists, the ACLU, NCAA, woke corporations, and the Biden-Harris administration, which has thrown the gauntlet further. More governors may have the opportunity to make this choice in the coming weeks. 

Women’s sports is not the only place radical gender ideology has taken root. It is also happening on social media, in school counseling offices, and in transgender pediatric clinics where children and youth are only affirmed in their self-declared “gender identities” with irreversible medical and surgical treatments. It takes courage to stand against the Big Gender interests behind this craze damaging our daughters.  

This week, Gov. Hutchinson acted in opposite fashion on the issue of protecting children from transgender promotion. Hutchinson vetoed a bill called the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act which would prevent experimental gender treatments and surgeries on minors, citing “government overreach” (even though many government laws shield the health and safety of children from harm). A veto-proof majority had passed the measure in both Arkansas chambers and quickly chided the governor’s retreat by overriding his veto. We applaud their courage to lead and enact the first child protection bill of its kind in the nation.

A greedy and negligent medical industry is shrouding the truth about the rising incidence of gender dysphoria, disregarding the reckless and harmful nature of treatment and denying children, who have no capacity for informed consent, the ability to grow up and out of dysphoric conditions. Instead, medical activists tell parents it is the “standard of care” and the best way to deal with gender-confusion and depression. They compel life-altering decisions that stop normal development and place children on a never-ending road of opposite sex hormone treatments that make empty promises about becoming the opposite sex – a scientific impossibility.  

South Dakota was in a similar battle last year where the same governor postured concern instead of conviction over what it sought to address: the serious damage to children being inflicted by promoters of transgender medical experiments on youth. She aided the bill’s defeat in a Senate committee. 

Courageous leaders in Congress are joining legislators in other states in protecting women’s sports and protecting children, most notably in South Carolina, where Democrat Representative Cezar McKnight is spearheading a bipartisan bill, the “South Carolina Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act,” to shield children from reckless transgender treatment. These leaders need encouragement for their courageous stand. 

Concerned Women for America is committed to our role in educating policymakers and citizens on these issues and being a voice of courage standing against radical gender ideology as a promise to America’s children. Our prayer is that all governors will respond to the momentum in their states on these serious issues confronting our culture by standing for truth, at such a time as this, and leading the way.