Regardless of one’s views on transgenderism, the notion of a children’s hospital irreversibly mutilating the bodies of young children is abhorrent child abuse at its worst and should be subject to criminal bans and criminal prosecution — as should all instances of so-called “transgender surgery” on children.
Short of being criminally charged but a step in the right direction, an Oklahoma pediatric hospital will stop offering some gender-related medical services after the state threatened to pull millions of dollars in funding. Oklahoma Children’s Hospital announced Tuesday it is planning to halt “certain gender medicine services” in order to keep funding for its new pediatric mental health facility.
As reported by the Washington Post, the Republican-controlled state legislature, which returned for a special session on Wednesday to appropriate $1.87 billion in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, threatened to withhold $39.4 million in Rescue Plan from the children’s hospital unless it stops providing “gender-altering” surgeries. OU Health, the University of Oklahoma’s health system, announced the change in a statement. OU Health. Oklahoma Children’s Hospital is part of OU Health, the University of Oklahoma’s health system.
The Legislature restricted the use of the funds from benefitting facilities performing certain gender medicine services. The new mental and behavioral health facility was never intended to provide such care.
The OU Health Senior Leadership team is proactively planning the ceasing of certain gender medicine services across our facilities and that plan is already under development.
“Already under development”? What’s to develop? According to its website, Oklahoma Children’s Hospital currently offers a variety of different “gender services,” including “pausing puberty,” “managing gender-affirming hormone therapy,” and “helping find surgeons who perform gender-affirming surgeries.” Here’s your “development”: Full-stop on mutilating boys who think their girls, or vice versa, and wait until they next decide they want to become astronauts or fairy princesses.
State Republican Rep. Randy Randleman emphasized that behavioral health is the party’s priority.
It’s not cutting anybody out for services. It’s saying we have such a need for behavior problems and families being dysfunctional that we want this individual money to be focused on that to get us back to where we should be.
Obviously, Randleman is “transphobic.” [sarc]
Republican lawmaker, Rep. Kevin West, who represents Oklahoma City, echoed Randleman’s comments while fiercely defending the GOP legislation:
I’m thankful for language in this bill that protects children from the practice of mutilation through gender reassignment medical treatment. This unbelievably harmful practice cannot be reversed, and has lasting physical and psychological consequences that can damage these children for the rest of their lives.
“Shockingly,” the American Civil Liberties Union disagrees, as transcribed by Daily Wire. Cindy Nguyen, policy director at ACLU of Oklahoma said: “Legislatures seem to believe that the health care and mental health of trans and 2SLGBTQ-plus youth is essentially a bargaining chip they can use.”
How twisted. And, what’s with the “2S” thing at the beginning of the ever-lengthening acronym? Never mind; I don’t want to know. What I do enjoy knowing is the Republican-controlled Oklahoma Legislature’s issuance of a “cease and desist order” of sorts against the heinous practice of child mutilation.
Let’s hope and pray it continues across America.