May 16, 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. – HR 5, known as the “Equality Act,” not only threatens the free exercise of religion and free speech, but medical and counseling professionals and facilities will be forced to cause harm by treating gender dysphoria in accordance with LGBT ideology, despite scientific evidence and conscience-based objections.
The “Equality Act” would pressure medical and counseling professionals to promote LGBT affirmation in their practice even if the client wants a different outcome.
Doctors, counselors and medical facilities would be required to prescribe treatments and procedures such as puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones and “sex-reassignment” surgeries to gender confused children. The harmful side effects of these treatments include sterility, loss of bone density, cognitive decline, and increased risk of cancer and suicide. Since HR 5 labels talk therapy to address gender dysphoria as a form of “discrimination,” professional counselors will be compelled to affirm LGBT and transgender ideology.
Dr. Michelle Cretella, a pediatrician and executive director of the American College of Pediatricians (ACPEDS) said in an interview with The Daily Caller, “This is very dangerous legislation in that it literally mandates that health professionals do harm to people. This act says that a health professional cannot deny treatment to a person based on their gender identity and would unfairly strip parents and moral conscientious health care employers of their freedoms as well as cause more harm to patients and children than good.”
“The problem is this: A person who identifies as trans can very readily and easily go and access medical care for a common cold, an ankle sprain, etc. The issue is when they go into a doctor’s office and say, for example, a woman goes in and says, 'I identify as a man. I want you, my OB-GYN, to perform a hysterectomy. Take my healthy uterus out of my healthy body.' That’s forcing a physician to violate his oath to first do no harm. Now, the transgender activists claim that, 'Oh, no. These transgender surgeries, removing reproductive organs, putting them on hormones is lifesaving.' It’s simply not true. That is not what the science shows,” said Cretella.
In 2017, ACPEDS issued a statement, “Gender Ideology Harms Children,” that urges healthcare professionals, educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. The statement includes the following medical facts:
“This ‘Equality Act’ has so many tragic consequences including forcing medical and counseling professionals to violate their religious, moral and ethical conscience and cause great harm to people by imposing the LGBT ideology,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “People’s discontentment with their birth sex cannot be solved by hormones and body mutilation. Doctors and counselors should not be forced to engage in procedures not based on scientific fact or reality that cause more harm than good,” said Staver.
HR 5 goes to the House floor for a vote tomorrow. The battle over HR 5 will occur in the Senate, where the bill number is S. 788.
For more information, visit LC.org/HR5.
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