U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R – KY) slammed the left for supporting a nominee who would not denounce the off-label use of hormone blockers for child sex changes yet bashing the alternative use of hydroxychloroquine and other approved drugs to treat COVID-19.
The heated exchange occurred 59 minutes into the confirmation hearing on February 25 of Rachel Levine, M.D., President Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service. Levine, a transgender woman, and pediatrician dodged Paul’s questions on whether or not she supports sex change for children. The process may start as early as three years of age, noted Paul, a physician, with prescription hormones not approved for such use.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes for Health have blocked outpatient use of hydroxychloroquine and other existing drugs to treat early infection of COVID-19 despite mounting, quality evidence the drugs can significantly reduce hospitalization and deaths from the virus. In a December hearing on the matter before a U.S. Senate committee, Democrats were a no-show, and the ranking minority member, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan) walked out after making a statement. Below is a transcription of the exchange between Paul and Levine:
Paul: Genital mutilation has been nearly universally condemned. Genital mutilation has been condemned by the WHO, The United Nations Children’s Fund, The United Nations Population Fund. According to the WHO, genital mutilation is recognized internationally as a violation of human rights. Genital mutilation is considered particularly egregious because as the WHO notes, it is nearly always carried out in minors and is a violation of the rights of children. Most genital mutilation is not typically performed by force. But as WHO notes, that by social convention, social norm, the social pressure to conform, to do what others do and have been doing as well as to be accepted socially, and the fear of being rejected by the community. American culture is now normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones to prevent the biological development of their secondary sexual characteristics. Dr. Levine, you have supported both allowing minors to be given hormone blockers to prevent them from going through puberty, as well as surgical destruction of a child’s genitalia. Like surgical mutilation, hormonal interruption of puberty can permanently alter and prevent secondary sexual characteristics.
The American College of Pediatricians reports that 80 to 95 percent of prepubertal children with gender dysphoria will experience resolution by late adolescence if not exposed to medical intervention and social affirmation. Dr. Levine, do you believe minors are capable of making such a life-changing decision as changing one’s sex?
Levine: Well, Senator, thank you for your interest in this question. Transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field, and we have robust research and standards of care that have been developed and if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed as the assistant secretary of health, I would look forward to working with you and your office and coming to your office and discussing the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine.
Paul: The specific question was about minors. Let’s be a little more specific since you evaded the question. Do you support the government intervening to override the parent’s consent, to give a child puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and/or amputation surgery of breasts and genitalia? You have said that you are willing to accelerate the protocols for street kids. I’m alarmed at poor kids, with no parents, who are homeless and distraught—you would just go through this and allow that to happen to a minor.
I would hope that you would have compassion for Keira Bell, who’s a 23-year-old girl who was confused with her identity. At 14, she read on the internet about something about transsexuals and she thought, “Well, maybe that is who I am.” She ended up getting these puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, she had her breasts amputated. But here’s what ultimately she says now, and this is a very insightful decision from someone who made a mistake but was led to believe this was a good thing by the medical community. “I made a brash decision as a teenager as a lot of teenagers do, trying to find confidence and happiness, except now the rest of my life will be negatively affected,” she said, adding that the medicalized gender transitioning was a very temporary, superficial fix for a very complex identity issue.
What I’m alarmed at, is that you are not willing to say, absolutely, minors should not be making decisions to amputate their breasts or to amputate their genitalia. For most of our history, we have believed that minors don’t have full rights and that parents need to be involved. I’m alarmed that you won’t say with certainty that minors should not have the ability to make the decision to take hormones that will affect them for the rest of their life. Will you make a more firm decision on whether minors should be involved in these decisions?
Levine: Senator, transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field. And if confirmed to the position of assistant secretary of health, I would certainly be pleased to come to your office and talk with you and your staff about standards of care and the complexity of this field.
Paul: Let it go into the record that the witness refused to answer the question. The question is a very specific one. Should minors be making these momentous decisions? For most of the history of medicine, we wouldn’t let you have a cut sewn up in the ER. But you’re willing to let a minor take things that prevent their puberty, and you think they get that back? You give a woman enough testosterone that she grows a beard, do you think she is going to go back looking like a woman when you stop? You have permanently changed them.
Infertility is another problem. None of these drugs has been approved for this. They’re all being used off-label. I find it ironic that the left that went nuts over hydroxychloroquine being used possibly for COVID, are not alarmed that these hormones are being used off-label. There are no long-term studies. We don’t know what happens to them. We do know that there are dozens and dozens of people who have been through this, who regret this happening, and a permanent change happened to them. And if you’ve ever been around children, 14-year-olds cannot make this decision. In the gender dysphoria clinic in England, 10 percent of the kids are between the ages of 3 and 10. We should be outraged that someone is talking to a 3-year-old about changing their sex. I can’t vote for you if you can’t make a decision.
AnneMarie Schieber (amschieber@heartland.org) is the managing editor of Health Care News.