Progressives’ Drive for Equity Is Leading Them Astray on Medical Gender Transition for Minors

In our drive to eliminate health inequities, my fellow liberal Democrats and I are eager to help children who identify as transgender. This compassionate urge has led our state, Oregon, to fast-track Medicaid coverage of medical transition services for kids, including puberty-blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical removal of breasts and genitals. Yet I’m deeply concerned that in the push for equity, Oregon has ignored evidence, to the point of jeopardizing children’s health. I know from experience that my state can do better to ensure that kids get medically necessary care.

Oregon has long been a national and even international model for evidence-based medicine. I personally encountered my state’s strong commitment to medical science after my two young sons were diagnosed with autism in the late 2000s. At the time, few autism treatments were covered by insurance or Medicaid anywhere in America, so I worked with state leaders and a broader coalition to right that wrong. One key hurdle was Oregon’s Health Evidence Review Commission (HERC), which determines what treatments Medicaid covers and strongly influences the coverage of private health-insurance plans.

Read more on National Review.

‘Social Justice Lawyers’ Told WPATH To Avoid ‘Evidence-Based Review’ Of Sex-Change Guidelines For Minors, Docs Reveal

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) avoided “evidence-based” reviews of child sex-change procedures on the advice of “social justice lawyers,” a court filing states.

Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall of Alabama filed a motion for summary judgment in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama Wednesday, seeking to beat back a challenge to Alabama’s law restricting the procedures. The Alabama attorney general’s office accused WPATH of placing “advocacy concerns” at the forefront of the creation of the organization’s “Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8” (SOC-8), which was based in part on the advice of the “social justice” attorneys who advised the organization to avoid seeking evidence-based recommendations.

Read more on the Daily Caller.

Med School Assistant Deans Urged Students To Oppose Bill Barring Child Sex Change Surgeries

Dartmouth College’s medical school faculty used university communication channels to urge students to oppose a New Hampshire bill banning gender transition surgeries for children, according to emails obtained by Do No Harm, an association of medical professionals.

The Geisel Medical School encouraged students to oppose three state bills, one of which bans gender transition surgeries for minors and the other protects children from being victimized in school or receiving sex surgeries as minors. The last bill requires people at schools, sports facilities and prisons to use the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex.

Read more on the Daily Caller.

Will a Program to Increase Black Kidney Transplants Do More Harm Than Good?

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed a new rule, which is aimed at increasing kidney transplants for black Americans. On its face, the rule would be a net positive. However, the group Do No Harm sees the potential for complications, and the potential for race-based discrimination is just one of them. 

Retired nephrologist Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm’s board, submitted a written comment to CMS objecting to the proposal. Goldfarb believes that more black people should receive transplants, but also states that the “health equity plan” is extremely flawed. 

Read more on PJ Media.

Arizona Fails Detransitioners

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Democrats once billed themselves as defenders of the powerless against the oppressive forces of industry. Last week, Arizona’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, protected the politically powerful gender-medicine industry from its victims.

Hobbs vetoed legislation that would have made insurers and health-care providers financially liable for costs associated with reversing or mitigating the harms inflicted on patients in the name of “gender-affirming care.” Currently, young people who have variously undergone surgical castration, mastectomies, and endocrine disruptions, only to realize that what they needed instead was mental-health support, are often left to shoulder the resulting medical bills themselves.

Read more in City Journal.

‘Microaggressions’ could cost doctors their medical licenses in Oregon, according to new proposed rule

The Oregon Medical Board has introduced a new ethics rule that threatens to revoke the medical licenses of doctors who commit “microaggressions” in the workplace.

Under the proposed law first introduced in April, doctors will be required to report “unprofessional or dishonorable conduct” by themselves or a licensed colleague within 10 business days. If they do not comply with the mandatory rule, they will face disciplinary action, which could include the loss of their medical license, according to the proposal.

Read more on Fox News.

How The Doctor At The Center Of Latest Texas Children’s Hospital Scandal Built An Alliance With Transgender Activists

Dr. Richard Ogden Roberts III is a pediatric endocrinologist at the Texas Children’s Hospital who’s administered puberty blocking and cross-sex hormone medications to young patients suffering from gender dysphoria. He was also one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that sought to halt a ban against child sex changes, leveraging his medical credentials as he worked alongside radical activist organizations.

Now he’s found himself at the center of a new scandal at the hospital, which has been enveloped in criticism after one whistleblower exposed the hospital for lying to the public about their offerings of transgender medical interventions to children and was then targeted by the federal government as a result.

Read more on the Daily Wire.

‘Life and death’: House GOP faces mounting pressure to target DEI in medical schools

More than 50 conservative groups are urging the House of Representatives to vote on a bill to block medical schools from weighing diversity as an admissions factor.

“Prioritizing the teaching of the political and social ideology at the heart of DEI, to the exclusion or expense of academic excellence, has life and death consequences for millions of patients,” they argued. “This bill takes a critical first step in reorienting medical education towards its noble, life-saving mission.”

The groups – 52 in total and include Do No Harm, Tea Party Patriots Action, Heritage Action, Physicians for Reform and others – sent a letter this week urging House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., to advance the bill through her panel and for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to bring it to the House floor.

Read more on Fox News.

New lawsuit claims women’s medical program illegally excludes White students

A new lawsuit has been filed against the American Association of University Women (AAUW) by the organization Do No Harm alleging that the AAUW’s “Selected Professions Fellowships” program is discriminatory and illegal.

The AAUW program offers $20,000 and networking opportunities to women pursuing certain degrees, but the organization has designated certain fellowships as restricted to women of color. The program is open only to women from ethnic minority groups, including Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.

Do No Harm, a nonprofit organization that says its aim is to safeguard healthcare from ideological threats, is filing the lawsuit on behalf of its medical student members who meet the criteria for the fellowship but are ineligible to apply due to their race.

Read more on Fox News.

‘Microaggressions’ May Cause Oregon Doctors to Lose Licenses if Proposed Rule Adopted

A newly proposed ethics rule regarding microaggressions by the Oregon Medical Board (OMB) could leave doctors in the state without medical licenses.

The OMB is reportedly in the process of finalizing an ethics rule regarding unprofessional conduct, which would include adding “microaggressions” into the definition, according to the Washington Free Beacon. The outlet notes that under the rule, doctors who do not report “unprofessional conduct, “within 10 business days,” may face extreme consequences, such as losing their medical license.

Read more on Breitbart.

Oregon Doctors Could Soon Lose Their Licenses for ‘Microaggressions’ Under Proposed Medical Board Rule

“America is the land of opportunity.” “I believe the most qualified person should get the job.” “America is a melting pot.” Those are examples of harmful “microaggressions,” according to Columbia professor Derald Wing Sue, lauded by Oregon’s state government as a “microaggressions expert.”

Now, under a soon-to-be-finalized ethics rule from the Oregon Medical Board, doctors who commit “microaggressions” risk losing their medical licenses.

Under Oregon law, doctors who fail to report “unprofessional conduct” from themselves or a colleague within 10 business days can face severe penalties, including loss of license. The state’s medical board is in the process of shoehorning “microaggressions” innocently intentioned behaviors interpreted by women or minorities to be subliminal communications of bias—into its definition of “unprofessional conduct,” according to the proposed rule, which the board unveiled in April.

Read more on the Washington Free Beacon.

A Look Back at The Daily Signal’s First Decade

Ten years ago today, we launched The Daily Signal with a vision of producing quality journalism about issues that matter to the American people.

In the past decade, we sure have.

Here’s a look at some of the best journalism produced by The Daily Signal over the years.

Read more on the Daily Signal.

The Endocrine Society’s last chance to protect children

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It’s not too late to turn back. That’s what the Endocrine Society, one of North America’s most powerful medical institutions, must remember as its annual meeting occurs in Boston this week.

The society is one of the foremost advocates of aggressive, invasive, and irreversible “gender-affirming” treatments for children. For years, it has played a major role in lawsuits that have struck down state laws protecting children, and judges, politicians, physicians, and patients look to it for guidance. Yet recent developments should cause the Endocrine Society to reconsider its stance for the sake of children.

I say this as a longtime endocrinologist who attended the society’s 2023 meeting in Chicago. My peers and I have long acknowledged the weak evidence supporting “gender-affirming” treatments for children.

Read more on The Washington Examiner.

UCLA medical school paid first-year students to write left-wing course requirements

The University of California, Los Angeles medical school solicited first-year medical students for a paid position writing curriculums for courses in their “Structural Racism and Health Equity” mandatory classes.

In documents obtained through a public records request from the medical advocacy group Do No Harm, the medical school was recruiting “tutors” to “create new curricular content for our SRHE thread—lectures, panels, discussion guides, cases, new electives—as well as audit and analyze existing curricular content for other SRHE threads.” SRHE is the school’s name for its Structural Racism and Health Equity curriculum.

Read more on The Washington Examiner.

California Dems Want To Fast-Track Medical Licenses for Applicants Who Will Provide Gender-Affirming Care

California’s medical credentialing boards would have to fast-track licenses for clinicians and therapists focused on gender transitions and other gender-affirming care under a bill that has already cleared the state assembly.

The legislation would require the state medical board, osteopathic board, nursing board, and physicians assistant board to expedite licenses “for an applicant who demonstrates that they intend to provide gender-affirming health care and gender-affirming mental health care.”

Read more on The Washington Free Beacon.

Montana Couple Who Lost Custody for Not ‘Gender Affirming’ Daughter Files Suit

A Montana couple who lost custody of their 14-year-old daughter because they opposed her undergoing “gender-affirming” treatments transitioning her to a boy, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the state’s Child and Family Services (CFS).

Todd Kolstad, the girl’s biological father, and Krista Cummins-Koldstad, her stepmother, were told by state social workers that their “objections to transgenderism made them unfit parents” and “they would not regain custody of their daughter unless they accepted her transgenderism,” the lawsuit states.

Read more on The Epoch Times.

Missouri AG looks into social workers, therapists in transgender clinic investigation

Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey is looking into the influence of social workers and therapists as part of his investigation into the Washington University Transgender Center.

According to documents arising from lawsuits regarding the investigation, Bailey is casting a wide net to uncover the web of medical professionals who have a hand in pushing children toward transition, including social workers and therapists.

Bailey’s expansive investigation started after whistleblower Jamie Reed, a former employee at the clinic, filed an affidavit last year regarding what she saw as the lax protocols the clinic followed in order to justify allowing children to seek the often irreversible medical pathway.

Read more on the Washington Examiner.

Biden’s Health Department Looks To Push Equity Requirements On Transplant Lists

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is looking to push equity requirements on hospitals providing kidney transplants, according to a recent proposal.

The proposal, announced May 8, will help President Joe Biden’s administration’s plan to address “racial bias” when it came to wait times and “profiteering and inequity” by transplant hospitals, Secretary Xavier Becerra said in the press release. HHS’ proposal would incentivize hospitals to prioritize low-income patients via a point system and create “health equity” plans to address patient gaps.

“The organ transplant industry, like every other part of society, is not immune to racial inequities,” Becerra said in the press release. “Black Americans disproportionately struggle with life-threatening kidney disease, yet they receive a smaller percentage of kidney transplants. The Biden-Harris Administration is taking concrete steps to remove racial bias when calculating wait times and rooting out profiteering and inequity in the transplant process.”

Read more on the Daily Caller.