FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 8, 2022

BOISE, IDAHO – Idaho Family Policy Center, a pro-family Christian ministry, celebrates the passage of the “Vulnerable Child Protection Act” (House Bill 675) by the Idaho House of Representatives. It now moves to to the Idaho Senate for consideration.

The legislation, which is sponsored by Representative Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa) and Senator Steve Vick (R-Dalton Gardens), bans puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex reassignment surgeries for children struggling with gender dysphoria.

There is no reliable evidence that sex reassignment improves either patient health outcomes or psychological wellbeing. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which conducted an exhaustive review of the available medical literature, found that “the four best designed and conducted studies that assessed quality of life before and after the surgery… did not demonstrate significant changes in psychometric test results” after sex reassignment surgery.

Furthermore, as many as 80 to 95 percent of children struggling with gender dysphoria will naturally grow out of it and accept their biological sex if they are allowed to pass through puberty, according to data from the American Psychiatric Association.

But too many of these children are prematurely pushed into irreversible interventions at the hands of medical professionals and therapists who practice so-called ‘gender-affirming care.’ That is why both the Texas Attorney General Office and Department of Family and Protective Services have announced that they will investigate doctors who administer cross-sex hormones or perform sex reassignment surgeries on minors for potential child abuse.

A statement from Blaine Conzatti, President of Idaho Family Policy Center:

“We’re thrilled that the Idaho House agrees that vulnerable children need to be protected from so-called ‘treatments’ that mutilate and maim their developing bodies.

“These medically unnecessary interventions are both irreversible and experimental, leaving children with irreparable infertility and sometimes even without the sexual organs of either a man or a woman. Doctors who administer these life-altering drugs and perform these disfiguring surgeries violate the Hippocratic Oath to ‘do no harm.’

“Children who struggle with gender dysphoria need help, not pharmaceutical and surgical interventions that set them up for lifelong medical problems.”

Media Contact: 

For questions or to schedule an interview with Blaine Conzatti, please contact (208) 260-5844 or [email protected].