A major Ivy League school has announced that it will no longer perform body deforming gender transition procedures on minors to comply with one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
The Daily Penn, the student newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania, announced in an Instagram post on Thursday that Penn Medicine, the school’s college of medicine that runs several hospitals and medical centers, will no longer perform body-mutilating trans surgeries on youth younger than 19.
In a statement shared with The Daily Penn, Penn Medicine Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President Dr. Patrick Brennan clarified that the change “pertains specifically to gender-affirming surgical procedures.”
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“This is a difficult decision that we know impacts patients and families who place their trust in our care teams,” Brennan wrote. “We remain deeply committed to ensuring a respectful and welcoming environment for all members of the communities we serve and providing comprehensive medical and behavioral health care and psychosocial support for LGBTQ+ individuals while complying with federal government requirements.”
The institution cited an executive order signed into law by Trump a week after taking office that vows to “rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit these destructive and life-altering procedures” as the reason for its policy change. The order established it as the policy of the United States that the federal government “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another.”
Examples of “chemical and surgical mutilation” covered by the order include puberty blockers such as “GnRH agonists and other interventions” that “delay the onset or progression of normally timed puberty in an individual that does not identify as his or her sex” as well as “sex hormones, such as androgen blockers, estrogen, progesterone, or testosterone, to align an individual’s physical appearance with an identity that differs from his or her sex.”
The order also applies to “surgical procedures that attempt to transform an individual’s physical appearance to align with an identity that differs from his or her sex or that attempt to alter or remove an individual’s sexual organs to minimize or destroy their natural biological functions.”
The order directed the heads of executive agencies to “take appropriate steps to ensure that institutions receiving Federal research or education grants end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children” and “rescind or amend all policies” that rely on guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which encouraged performing these irreversible procedures on minors.
The push by the Trump administration to crack down on gender transition procedures for minors and the University of Pennsylvania’s reaction to it comes after more than two dozen states have banned some or all types of such procedures due to concerns about their long-term impact: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The American College of Pediatricians has listed the potential side effects of puberty blockers, which are often prescribed to trans-identified youth, as “osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility.” Meanwhile, the potential long-term impacts of cross-sex hormones, also frequently prescribed to youth with gender dysphoria, include “an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers across their lifespan.”
Gender transition surgeries involve the removal of healthy body parts, including breasts, testicles and even one’s penis.
Penn Medicine’s announcement came on the same day that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent a letter to hospitals asking them to provide information about their “informed consent protocols for children with gender dysphoria, including how children are deemed capable of making these potentially life-changing decisions and when parental consent is required.”
Additional information sought from hospitals by the federal government agency included “changes to clinical practice guidelines and protocols” they planned to enact in light of “the recent comprehensive review of medical evidence and corresponding guidance released by” the Department of Health and Human Services and “complete financial data” on all taxpayer funding used to perform the life-altering procedures.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
