Broke California wants to fund youth sterilizations and sex changes

State senators complain opponents are fear-mongering

By Greg Burt

The California Senate will consider legislation soon to use taxpayer funds to pay for hormone blockers and sex change operations for minors.

The bill, after passing the Senate Health Committee by a 7-1 vote last week, now moves to the Senate Appropriation Committee and then to the floor of the Senate before the end of the month.

As noted by numerous health experts, the use of cross-sex hormones and surgeries for adolescents would permanently destroy their reproductive systems, a fact which AB2218 backers seem inclined to ignore.

The author, Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), and the other Senators on the committee complained about being inundated with phone calls from voters telling them not to sterilizes children.

“Let me be very clear and get the record straight,” Santiago said forcefully and repeatedly at the hearing. “Nothing, I will repeat, talks about sterilizing kids. Nothing, I will repeat, in this bill points to anything to do with children… I think it is fear-mongering and good for sound bites.”

Sentiments from Health Committee members repeated the same message. “I got hundreds and hundreds of calls asking me not to support something that sterilizes children,” Rubio told the committee. “So after those calls, I decided to read the bill very, very carefully and I didn’t find anything about sterilizing children.”

Senator Connie Leyva (D-Chino) expressed pity for her callers. “I felt bad for the people who were calling to ask us to vote no because I do think they were misled.”

“By approving AB 2218, members of the Health Committee got it wrong,” said California Family Council President Jonathan Keller. “At best, these senators are ignorant of how California gender clinics are already sterilizing children and young adults. If not, they are flatly refusing to acknowledge how this bill will fund these dangerous procedures.”

“Gender clinics claim to treat gender dysphoria in pre-pubescent children with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones,” Keller continued. “You don’t need to be a doctor to know that a child who doesn’t experience puberty will likely be sterile for life.”

The text of AB 2218 reads, “The grants shall be available to a hospital, health care clinic, or other medical providers that currently provides gender-affirming health care services, such as hormone therapy or gender reassignment surgery.”

With a little research into the gender clinics the bill funds, Santiago and the complaining Senators would have easily discovered that children, who identify as transgender are first given drugs to prevent puberty from occurring.

Next, they are given cross-sex hormone therapy, so their bodies start to imitate the look of the opposite sex. Both these drugs used together sterilizes most kids.

After these trans-drugs are given, surgeries are available: girls can get double mastectomies at 13 in California, and both sexes can receive full sex-change operations at 18, all “treatments” funded by AB 2218 grants.

This is a well-established fact that a person can’t reproduce if he or she takes drugs to prevent their body from maturing through puberty. Even the UCSF Medical Center, with a Transgender Care unit, acknowledges the fertility effects of transgender drugs on minors.

To prove the point, read the advice they give youth on their website before starting hormone therapy. Under a section titled, “Preparing for gender-affirming hormone use in transgender youth” it reads:

“While options are being explored to preserve future fertility for transgender youth, the current reality is that cryopreservation is very expensive, in many cases prohibitively so for those with ovaries.” The only reason to freeze eggs and sperm is that you know hormones are going to kill them permanently.

The report goes on:

“For youth whose pubertal process has been suspended in the earliest stages [by puberty-blocking drugs], followed by administration of gender-affirming hormones, development of mature sperm or eggs is unlikely at the present time, although it is noteworthy that there is active research developing gametes in vitro from the field of juvenile oncology. The issue of future infertility is often far more problematic for parents and family members than for youth, especially at the beginning stages of discussing moving forward with gender-affirming hormones.”

This is the guidance given to someone right before they go sterile.

AB 2218 initially asked for $15 million to start the fund. It passed the California State Assembly with little debate. The bill is coauthored by Assembly members Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) and Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco).

A number of medical doctors and health professionals submitted opposition letters to AB 2218, including:

Dr. Michael Laidlaw

Dr. Andre Van Mol, American College of Pediatricians

J. Michael Kuiper, PhD, Clinical Psychologist

Greg Burt is Director of Capitol Engagement for the California Family Council (www.californiafamily.org) in Sacramento. He can be reached at [email protected]
or (949) 244-2080.