Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a speech on Wednesday where he condemned doctors who perform sex-changing surgeries on children. Ultimately, he suggested that such professionals should be sued.
During the conference, the Republican governor stood firm in his belief that the government should not give children the ability to castrate their bodies.
His proclamations about the subject prompted cheers of support from his audience.
“They talk about these very young kids getting ‘gender-affirming care.’ They don’t tell you what that is,” DeSantis said in a video tweeted by Florida’s Voice.
#BREAKING: Gov. Ron DeSantis calls for doctors to be sued for providing children suffering from gender dysphoria double mastectomies and castrations
“They wanna castrate these young boys – that’s wrong … I think these doctors need to get sued for what’s happening.” pic.twitter.com/aKwsHIlzXF
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) August 3, 2022
“They are actually giving very young girls double mastectomies. They want to castrate these young boys — that’s wrong,” DeSantis said.
“And so we’ve stood up and said, both from the health and children well-being perspective, you don’t disfigure 10-, 12-, 13-year-old kids based on gender dysphoria. Eighty percent of it resolves anyways by the time they get older, so why would you be doing this?” DeSantis added.
“I think these doctors need to get sued for what’s happening.”
It was after this suggestion that applause erupted from the governor’s audience.
DeSantis’ movement to restrict a minor’s access to sex-changing procedures has been grossly countered by Democrats. In the first half of 2022, the Biden administration announced its new healthcare proposals, which promoted “gender-affirming care” and suggested that minors have access to gender reassignment surgery, puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
Fortunately for DeSantis, others in Florida’s leadership are in favor of restricting the “gender-affirming care” for which Biden and other Democrats are pushing.
In April, the state’s Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo released new public health guidelines for Florida minors struggling with gender dysphoria — guidelines which counter those proposed by the Biden administration, WPEC News reported.
Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration also pursued restricting the Biden administration’s proposal. After Ladapo’s announcement, the state’s ACHA similarly suggested blocking payment for transgender medical treatment, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery, WPEC noted.
These measures alongside DeSantis’ proposal to sue the doctors who participate in the castration of young children is yet another one of the state’s trailblazing moves.
By restricting a minor’s access to gender-changing procedures, Florida’s leadership is leaning into the well-known fact that children lack a firm grasp on the world around them.
Just as a 12-year-old believes that having the coolest shoes will make them popular, so too are they susceptible to the promise that changing their gender will resolve the discomfort they feel in their own bodies.
Every adult has lived as a 12-year-old, and surely, each remembers a time where he toiled with an insecurity about his ears being just a little too big, his frame being a little too skinny or his stature being a little too short.
The difference — today’s adults struggled with their childhood body discomforts in a society that promoted the trope, “This too shall pass.”
Children are young and impressionable. Everything is new for them as they learn about the dynamics of the world and grow accustomed to their changing bodies.
To trust that a 12-year-old confidently knows that they don’t identify with their gender is far from logical.
To trust that a 12-year-old’s happiness will come from cutting off her breasts or castrating his genitalia is wishful thinking, and to believe that the child won’t regret it or change their mind later is ludicrous.
No current adult looks back and thinks that their 12-year-old self was reasonably capable of make good life-changing decisions.
DeSantis is right to suggest that doctors who perform gender-altering surgeries on minors should be sued.
No matter what the general arguments are for gender-altering surgeries for adults, it should be accepted that those surgeries are not appropriate for children who are not physically or mentally mature enough to make life-altering decisions.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.