Trans health care bill is ‘dangerous and misguided,’ KY doctors warn | Opinion
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In HB 470, the cruelty is the point. Even if that cruelty is against children. | Opinion
Trans health care bill is ‘dangerous and misguided,’ KY doctors warn | Opinion
Science, patient-provider relationships, professional judgment and compassion are the bedrock of sound health care decisions.
This week we were stunned to find these principles erased by House Bill 470, which replaces those respected tenets of healing with control by government and politicians. This bill puts health care providers in the position of fighting for the literal survival of thousands of our most marginalized and vulnerable youths who identify as transgender or gender diverse (TGD).
HB 470 will deny trans people under the age of 18 gender-affirming healthcare, including surgeries, medications and mental health counseling. This legislation goes further by proposing revocation of professional licensure and criminalization for the provision of those services.
Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, optometrists, chiropractors, dentists, school counselors, addiction specialists, social workers, pastoral counselors and massage therapists could be charged with misdemeanors and felonies for providing affirming care to transgender youth. So, a dentist referring to a child by the name that brings them relief and belonging, or a pastor assisting a family in obtaining clothing that is judged by Kentucky lawmakers as mismatching their child’s sex could be charged with a crime.
This bill is dangerous and misguided.
The Williams Institute estimates that up to 3,600 of the Commonwealth’s transgender youth are at risk of being denied access to gender-affirming healthcare by HB 470. Tragically, as many as 80% of transgender youth contemplate suicide and 20-40% have attempted suicide in the last year. Our TGD youths, children of our Commonwealth, live in fear and die unnecessarily. How many more will do likewise with the rejection and dread of HB 470’s enacting?
We, as providers to transgender youths and thousands more adults, commonly see evidence of our patients’ loneliness, rejection and lack of trusted support systems. Often these feelings stem from practices designed to forcibly change their gender. Conversion practices have been discredited by every medical society and banned by many states.
When we treat survivors of social or medical conversion, we develop trust and human connection to give TGD people the scientific treatment they need. We watch them go from barely surviving to thriving. Every one of us has witnessed that rejection and fear, and been able to offer hope. We sometimes see that their families are reluctant, scared for their safety and tempted to wait; but then witness their child emerge full of life, blossoming into themselves. Far from coercing their child into the difficult journey of lifelong treatments and marginalized identity, parents often feel some guilt after waiting so long to help their child become themselves.
If state government forces the abandonment of evidence-based medical care for practices that shame and devalue our youth, no one will experience this hope and blossoming, and rates of depression and suicide will increase. HB 470 replaces parent-child and patient-provider relationships with political ambitions. HB 470 will be the nail in the literal coffins of children.
We providers of gender-affirming care are coming together for a common cause: to protect and care for patients. We fear for the health and lives of our patients. TGD people are our family, friends and coworkers. We who serve transgender patients are threatened as well, but we cannot sit quietly while our patients suffer.
We cannot do it alone. We must recognize that our transgender youth are human, like all cisgender children, like any lawmaker’s child: deserving of evidence-based, comprehensive, life-saving care. If HB470 is enacted, the results will be tragic for transgender people, for all people and for the integrity and prosperity of our Commonwealth.
Keisa Fallin-Bennett MD, MPH is an associate professor in the Department of Family & Community Medicine at the University of Kentucky. Coy Flowers MD, FACOG specializes in obstetrics and gynecology at the UK.
This OpEd was also signed by the following healthcare providers in Kentucky: Sarah Marks, MD, MA, FAAFP; Joanne Brown, DNP, APRN, WHNP-C, FNP-C; Anthony Carney, DNP, APRN, CCRN, FNP-C; Nikita Gupta, MD; Mark Hoffman, MD; Sarah Kluck, MD; J. Curtis Montague, LCSW; Martha Parks, LCSW; Megan Walden, MSN, RN-BC; and Frederick Zachman, MD.