Governor Newsom Signs Bill to Fund Sterilizing Trans-Treatments for Minors and Adults

Despite the medical evidence and the moral outcry from Christians around the country, Governor Gavin Newsom sent out a celebratory press release over the weekend announcing the signing of AB 2218, a bill that gives grants to gender clinics to pay for transgender drugs and surgeries known to sterilize children and adults. Newsom praised the bill for “strengthening protections for LGBTQ+ Californians” and providing an “additional step forward” in “our march towards equality.” Opponents strongly condemned the governor’s decision.

“By rejecting the concerns of doctors and parents, and siding with LGBT activists, Governor Newsom is yet again ignoring the heartbreak his policies will unleash,” said Jonathan Keller, President of California Family Council. “AB 2218 opens the door to drugs and surgeries causing irreversible damage, risking life-long sterility for young people. Sadly, the Governor failed in his God-given responsibility to protect the people he was elected to serve.”

Testifying against AB 2218 in committee, was Dr. Quentin Van Meter, a board-certified pediatric endocrinologist and an adjunct professor of pediatrics at both Emory University and Morehouse College with 44 years of experience. In his testimony before the Assembly Health Committee, he explained how “one’s sex is concrete and immutable” and “can never be changed.” He pointed to studies showing children who are treated with cross-sex hormones for their gender confusion have “significant mental health issues,” that remain even after hormone therapy. 

Van Meter used an analogy of a carousel to explain to legislators how treatments that affirm transgender feelings are luring vulnerable and emotionally troubled children into treatment that turns into a nightmare. “Medical literature and the testimonies of trans-adults who have returned to a congruence of gender and sex show that this carousel is, in the end, a circular hell,” he testified. (read more…)

Evangelical icon and world-renowned Christian family psychologist Dr. James Dobson spoke out against AB 2218 as well saying this legislation “supports  gender mutilation and sterilization” and celebrates “acts of cruelty.” 

“These so-called ‘gender clinics’ use puberty blockers on prepubescent children in order to prevent them from experiencing puberty. If a child doesn’t go through this natural stage of development, he or she will likely be sterile for life, a medical fact that many of these clinics expressly admit,” Dobson said. “Experimenting on vulnerable children and adults is not just unethical; it is morally repugnant. It is beyond reprehensible that our government officials voted to fund this evil assault on children and adults who are made in the image of Almighty God. These hurting individuals need our compassion and care—not a cocktail of drugs and disfiguring surgeries that could well cause irreversible harm to their bodies.”

Even California gender clinics themselves admit puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones sterilize young people. The Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA) warns parents of the irreversible damage these drugs do to their children. Before trans-identified minors are allowed to start their transition using puberty blockers (which stops puberty from occurring) and cross-sex hormones, CHLA requires their parents to sign a consent form which says the following: 

“If your child starts puberty blockers in the earliest stages of puberty, and then goes on to gender affirming hormones, they will not develop sperm or eggs. This means that they will not have biological children.” The consent form immediately continues with the following sentence underlined and in italics. “This is an important aspect of blocking puberty and progressing to hormones that you should understand prior to moving forward with puberty suppression.”

The UCSF Medical Center’s Transgender Care unit gives a similar warning about the effects of transgender drugs on fertility. Here is the advice care unit gives youth on their website before starting hormone therapy.

Under a section titled, “Preparing for gender-affirming hormone use in transgender youth” it says, “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 advice 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.” 

Here is additional information related to AB 2218:

• Peer Influence Causing Drastic Increase in Girls Who Think They are Boys, New Book Reports: A new social phenomenon is emerging among females friends in college, high school, and even middle school. An alarming number of these young ladies are announcing, out of the blue, that they are transgender and want sterilizing transition treatments like testosterone shots, double mastectomies, and eventually reassignment surgeries. The recently released book, “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” by Abigail Shrier, details this horrifying trend. With Newsom’s approval of AB 2218, California will use taxpayer dollars to pay for these harmful trans-treatments on these confused girls.
  
• New Poll Says Californians Oppose Gender Mutilation & Sterilization Bill
  A recently released poll shows 64 percent of California voters did not want Governor Gavin Newsom to sign AB 2218. The survey, conducted by Spry Strategies in conjunction with the Women’s Liberation Front, shows that conservative Christians and radical feminists, who have joined forces to oppose AB 2218, are more in step with California voters than state legislators.
  
• A former transgender-identified man from Oklahoma testified against AB 2218. Laura Perry remembers coming to San Francisco over a decade ago to get a double mastectomy because she really believed she was a man trapped in a woman’s body.  “I really thought that it was going to fix the problem,” she remembered hoping. I liked the physical result, “but I remember being devastated after a few weeks when I realized that my surgery hadn’t made me a man.”
  
• State senators speaking out against AB 2218: 
  • “Once again, California Democrats continue to ignore the pleas of parents from across the state and have pushed for AB 2218. The government should not be in the business of incentivizing doctors to rush young children to make a decision that is life-altering and irreversible before they’ve even reached emotional and physical maturity. Time and time again, Democrats prove they care more about pushing their own agenda then listening to the legitimate concerns of parents in this state,” said Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield).
    
  • “California should not be setting aside taxpayer funds to pay for drugs or treatments that risk the ability of children and minors to someday have biological children of their own,” said Senator Mike Morrell (R-Rancho Cucamonga)
    

Watch committee hearings: 

• CA Assembly Health Committee hearing on May 18th for AB 2218
• CA Senate Health Committee hearing on August 10th for AB 2218

Who voted for and against AB 2218? Find that information here.