When it comes to protecting children from chemical mutilation, the Luxon government, and Labor in Australia, are being shown up by the most left-wing UK government in living memory.
The British government has banned the use of puberty blockers for children under the age of 18 because they pose “an unacceptable safety risk’’.
Existing emergency measures banning the sale and supply of puberty-suppressing hormones will be made indefinite, following official advice from medical experts, Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced on Wednesday.
The ban will apply to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and also makes it an offence for doctors outside of the United Kingdom to prescribe the blockers for British children suffering gender dysphoria.
Compare this decisive action by the Starmer government with the hemming and hawing of National in New Zealand.
In releasing its long-delayed evidence brief on Thursday, the [Ministry of Health] urged “a more precautionary approach” for the care of adolescents with gender identity issues.
“The ministry’s assessment is that the starting point for treatment is a holistic assessment determining the full spectrum of needs a young person may have, including social and mental health,” it said in a statement.
“The new precautionary approach signals the need for clinicians to exercise caution in prescribing.”
This is nothing more than a mealy-mouthed each-way bet. National are too gutless – or too much in sympathy with “progressive” activists – to come right out and admit the truth: chemically castrating children, most likely for life, and stunting their natural development is just wrong.
It could be worse, though.
A Victorian court has granted permission for a 12-year-old child to be prescribed treatment to block the onset of puberty, despite a hospital raising concerns that the father had not been consulted, and pointing to “ongoing uncertainty” about approvals for the treatment of children with gender dysphoria.
There’s not much I’d praise the Starmer government for, but at least there’s no ‘uncertainty’ for the UK Health Minister.
Mr Streeting said he is listening to “clinicians, not politicians” and said it was a scandal that such drugs had been given to trans youths without proof they were safe or effective.
In fact, all the evidence is that they are horrifically harmful. Not only are they likely to leave children permanently sterile, but they also result in life-long developmental problems, including stunted bone growth.
These are not new facts, either. In parallels with Big Tobacco, a US doctor and transgender activist intentionally withheld the publication of a $9.7m taxpayer-funded study that showed the harms associated with puberty blockers.
Dr Johanna Olson-Kennedy defended hiding the study on the grounds she did ‘not want our work to be weaponized’. Author J K Rowling responded:
“We must not publish a study that says we’re harming children because people who say we’re harming children will use the study as evidence that we’re harming children, which might make it difficult for us to continue harming children” – J K Rowling
To their credit, the Starmer government have called an indefinite halt to harming children.
Feminist campaigner Helen Joyce said on X that Mr Streeting not only stood firm on the temporary ban on puberty blockers he inherited from the previous government, but he carefully closed loopholes and has now made it indefinite. “This despite a sustained campaign of lies and emotional blackmail,’’ she said.
She hailed the move as another step towards puberty blockers being relegated to “a shameful chapter of history”, in which parents and health professionals were emotionally blackmailed into harming children in the name of ‘progress’ […]
The government’s indefinite ban comes after a targeted review was carried out in the past few months by the Commission on Human Medicines which found the drugs posed an unaccepted safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children.
Over to you, Shane Reti.
