During a rally at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Department in Howell, Michigan, Donald Trump promised to protect America’s children from gender surgeries lacking parental consent.
“And to protect our children from sexual mutilation, we will make it a felony for any medical professional to perform surgery on a minor without parental consent,” Trump’s prepared remarks read.
The remarks also indicated that Trump supports the death penalty for child rapists and traffickers.
Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, called the statement “big news.”
Twenty-five U.S. states have bans against “gender-affirming” surgery for minors.
Those states are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Earlier this year, the American College of Pediatricians warned against “gender-affirming care” for transgender adolescents as current literature on the subject does not offer “long-term evidence” that medical intervention “benefit their mental well-being.”
In a position paper on trans-identifying adolescents, the group asserted, “There are no long-term studies demonstrating benefits nor studies evaluating risks associated with the medical and surgical interventions provided to these adolescents,” adding, “There is no long-term evidence that mental health concerns are decreased or alleviated after ‘gender affirming therapy.’”
