As the state legislature enters the last week of this year’s session, evangelical icon and world-renowned Christian family psychologist Dr. James Dobson takes the debate against California’s gender transitioning bill national, saying this legislation “supports gender mutilation and sterilization” and celebrates “acts of cruelty.” AB 2218, authored by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D – Los Angeles), uses taxpayer dollars to fund nonprofits, hospitals, and health care clinics that provide transgender-identifying minors and adults with sterilizing transitioning drugs and surgeries.
The bill has made its way through the legislative process and is set for final votes in the Senate and the Assembly this week. Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) also condemned the bill saying it incentivizes doctors to “rush” immature children to make “life-altering and irreversible” decisions about their bodies. California Congressman Doug LaMalfa introduced two federal bills several weeks ago to ban these drugs and surgeries for minors and to ban federal funds for these treatments for children and adults.
AB 2218’s author and some senators have complained misinformation and fearmongering have caused constituents to overwhelm their legislative offices with concerns that this bill funds treatments that sterilize minors. “Nothing in this bill. Nothing, I will repeat, talks about sterilizing kids,” said Santiago while testifying in the Senate Health Committee earlier this month. He said this despite the fact that gender clinics, like the one at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, warn parents that treating gender dysphoric kids with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones means these pre-pubescent children ”will not develop sperm or eggs” and “they will not have biological children.”
Dr. Dobson is the radio host of Family Talk, founder of Focus on the Family, and the author of 71 books dedicated to the preservation of the traditional family, but he also was an attending staff member of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles for 17 years. That might explain his outrage at the type of treatments the state of California plans to fund at his former employer.
Dr. Dobson provided the following statement on AB 2218 to the California Family Council:
For the sake of the children and adults victimized by our culture’s distorted sexual devolution, I’ll state exactly what this bill supports: gender mutilation and sterilization. These so-called “gender clinics” use puberty blockers on pre-pubescent 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.
No rational society or compassionate individual could possibly celebrate the mutilation of adolescents or adults. And yet this bill would fund procedures including double mastectomies on adolescent girls and genital amputations and reconstructive procedures for individuals older than 18. This isn’t the fulfillment of personal autonomy—this is the celebration of acts of cruelty.
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.
Several other state senators released statements against AB 2218 as well.
“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)
“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)
California Congressman Doug LaMalfa introduced two pieces of federal legislation several weeks ago that would outlaw transitioning drugs and surgeries for minors, and ban federal funds to pay for such treatments for both children and adults.
LaMalfa said: “Our society has quickly ‘normalized’ gender experimentation under the guise of an ‘accepting’ political ideology rather than biological reality. Even more troubling, children are undergoing experimental treatments, like being injected with puberty-blocking hormones and cross-sex hormones, which have irreversible consequences, such as permanent sterility. Both the Protecting Children from Experimentation Act and the End Taxpayer Funding of Gender Experimentation Act aim to protect children and taxpayers from paying the high price of these unethical medical interventions. As minors, children cannot vote, join the military, or open a bank account; it’s our job as a society, and especially parents, to protect them from making life-altering gender experimentation decisions that they may likely later regret.”
