Q&A of the Day – Gender Reassignment Policy for Minors in Florida
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Today’s entry: Brian, what’s Florida’s law on gender reassignment procedures for minors? When you mentioned Florida’s Supreme Court ruled minors could have an abortion without parental consent, I began wondering what else might be possible which could have permanent implications.
Bottom Line: What a world and time we live in, right? One in which among the concerns parents might have could include going to a doctor to receive treatments to permanently alter their God-given gender. The good news for concerned parents, there hasn’t been a Tik-Tok challenge encouraging kids to do this that’s caught on yet. What triggered this question was the recent discussion of Florida’s 1989 Supreme Court ruling which enabled minors to obtain an abortion in Florida without parental consent in the name of privacy. If medical privacy could apply to a minor obtaining an abortion without parental consent, could it apply to something like gender reassignment stuff? While this specific issue hasn’t been litigated in Florida, the answer most likely is yes, as of today, based on that 1989 ruling. I’ll come back to that point in a minute because that may soon change.
With the gender reassignment trend being relatively new, there’s a lot which hasn’t been settled on the do’s and don'ts in Florida. The first action taken on the subject only happened this past April. On April 20th, the Florida Department of Health issued its first official guidance in a report entitled: Treatment of Gender Dysphoria for Children and Adolescents. In that directive the FDOH directly challenged federal guidance which was encouraging of gender reassignment measures for minors. As the FDOH stated...
Systematic reviews on hormonal treatment for young people show a trend of low-quality evidence, small sample sizes, and medium to high risk of bias. A paper published in the International Review of Psychiatry states that 80% of those seeking clinical care will lose their desire to identify with the non-birth sex. One review concludes that "hormonal treatments for transgender adolescents can achieve their intended physical effects, but evidence regarding their psychosocial and cognitive impact is generally lacking."
And the Florida Department of Health didn’t just issue the statement – they included all of the supporting scientific evidence based on peer reviewed studies which illustrate their point. This btw, only further emphasizes just how radical the Biden admin’s guidance was given that it's not scientifically supported. To that end this is the guidance the FDOH has issued to Florida’s medical service providers:
- Social gender transitionshould not be a treatment option for children or adolescents.
- Anyone under 18 should not be prescribed pubertyblockers or hormone therapy.
- Gender reassignment surgeryshould not be a treatment option for children or adolescents.
- Based on the currently available evidence, "encouraging mastectomy, ovariectomy, uterine extirpation, penile disablement, tracheal shave, the prescription of hormones which are out of line with the genetic make-up of the child, or puberty blockers, are all clinical practices which run an unacceptably high risk of doing harm."
- Children and adolescents should be provided social support by peers and family and seek counseling from a licensed provider.
Now the thing is... These guidelines are just that. They’re non-binding. So, if a doctor wants to start physically manipulating willful kids they can. This is why in early June Governor DeSantis began to press Florida’s Regulating Board to consider banning gender reassignment procedures within the state. If the Board banned the practice, Florida’s doctors would risk losing their licenses for performing related treatments. As of now nothing’s changed, as there’s a debate about whether the Board could take that type of action without legislative action. And to that end, one might expect an effort to be made in next year’s state legislative session to address this. But back to the whole 1989 Florida Supreme Court ruling on abortion and how the challenge to Florida’s new abortion law could impact this issue.
After Leon County Circuit Court Judge John Cooper issued his ruling against Florida’s new abortion law, citing the 1989 Florida Supreme Court ruling enabling minors to obtain abortions without parental consent in the name of a medical privacy constitutional amendment, the state appealed the ruling (which also reinstated the law in the process). It remains to be seen what happens within the state court system from here. But should the Florida Supreme Court take up the case, a possible outcome would include the court striking down the 1989 ruling which would also potentially mean minors would no longer retain the ability to seek any medical procedures without parental consent. That would be ironic for interest groups who brought the abortion lawsuit as they also support child gender reassignment procedures. Stay tuned...