The Florida Board of Medicine is slated Friday to consider a proposal by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to bar physicians from providing treatments such as hormone therapy and puberty-blocking medication to transgender youths.
The state Department of Health last week filed a petition asking the board, which regulates medical doctors, to start a rule-making process on the contentious issue. The move came as the state Agency for Health Care Administration also plans to prevent the Medicaid program from covering such treatments for gender dysphoria.
The petition, which is on the agenda for a Board of Medicine meeting in Broward County, proposes what is known as a “standard of care” that would prohibit patients under age 18 from receiving sex-reassignment surgery and puberty-blocking, hormone and hormone “antagonist” treatments. It also would require that older patients sign a consent form and then wait 24 hours before starting such treatments.
[The Board of Medicine consists of 15 members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Florida Senate, according to the organization’s website.]
Signed by Department of Health General Counsel John Wilson, the petition pointed to what it said was a “lack of quality evidence and certainly no conclusive research to support the medical transition of children to the opposite gender as a treatment for gender dysphoria.”
“Children do not possess the cognitive or emotional maturity to comprehend the consequences of these invasive and irreversible procedures,” the petition said.
But in a July 14 letter to Board of Medicine Chairman David Diamond and other board members, a group of professors and clinicians from Yale University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Texas Southwestern disputed the state’s conclusions about treatments for gender dysphoria. The letter also said establishing a standard of care to prevent such treatments would violate legal protections “against discrimination and harm tens of thousands of Floridians.”
“We are concerned that any action by the Board (of Medicine) to ban or curtail standard medical care in Florida for individuals with gender dysphoria would set a troubling national precedent,” the letter said.
The federal government defines gender dysphoria clinically as “significant distress that a person may feel when sex or gender assigned at birth is not the same as their identity.”
But treatment for transgender people, and youths in particular, has become a fiercely debated political issue in Florida and other states. Prominent medical groups and the Biden administration support treatments for gender dysphoria, while many Republicans such as DeSantis have argued the treatments should not be provided to people under 18.
Last week’s petition filed at the Board of Medicine was rooted in guidance that the Department of Health issued April 20 that said treatments such as puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy should not be used for transgender youths. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo also issued a statement at the time blasting federal directives that backed treatment for transgender youths.
“It was about injecting political ideology into the health of our children,” Ladapo said. “Children experiencing gender dysphoria should be supported by family and seek counseling, not pushed into an irreversible decision before they reach 18.”
The Agency for Health Care Administration, which runs most of the Medicaid program, used the Department of Health guidance as a springboard to propose a rule that would bar Medicaid coverage for the treatments.
In turn, the Department of Health petition last week cited a report that the Agency for Health Care Administration has used to support its proposed Medicaid rule.
That report, whose authors included doctors and researchers who oppose medical care for gender dysphoria, said the Medicaid program “has determined that the research supporting sex reassignment treatment is insufficient to demonstrate efficacy and safety.”
But the Yale, University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Texas Southwestern professors and clinicians issued a report last month sharply criticizing the report used by the Agency for Health Care Administration.
“We are alarmed that Florida’s health care agency has adopted a purportedly scientific report that so blatantly violates the basic tenets of scientific inquiry,” the professors and clinicians wrote. “The report makes false statements and contains glaring errors regarding science, statistical methods and medicine.”
In preparation for Friday’s meeting, the Board of Medicine posted 1,113 pages of documents on its website related to gender-dysphoria treatment. Along with the petition, those documents include numerous studies about treatment.
The petition is an initial step in a process that would include drawing up the details of a proposed standard-of-care rule and taking public comment.
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
Who said what? says
Has the entire world gone crazy?? Children can not make life changing decisions because they lack the maturity needed to weigh all revelant factors. That’s why there are laws that they can’t buy a gun until they are 18 or cigarettes or alcohol. A 16 year old girl can’t get a hysterectomy because she wants one because her wants and needs will change with maturity. This entire argument is utterly crazy. I miss the good old days when people had a little common sense.
Flatsflyer says
Yale University should remind his degree and make a public announcement that based on his mental illness he should never even been admitted in the first place.
Bell says
You cannot generally be sterilized before 18 and may have issues finding a doctor to do it even at 18 so not sure why not allowing gender reassignment until you are an adult and requiring one day to think about it is a problem. It actually makes sense.
Me says
Who else is DeSantis going to DISCRIMINATE AGAINST? but he sure will want your vote for Governor and then President. NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.
Michael Cocchiola says
F’n DeSantis is promoting a Nazi purge of people he feels are “different” from his White view of American culture. He has already murdered children by denying the COVID pandemic and rejecting proven countermeasures. He will now openly murder more by denying medical and mental health treatment to those suffering from gender dystopia or those suffering an unwanted pregnancy. What’s next… no Medicaid for seniors to clean out non-working non-tax-paying citizens?
And that surgeon lapdog Ladapo? Is he black because he’s a person of color or because he keeps crawling up DeSantis’ back end?
People… remember one thing. MegaMAGAs are doing everything they can – fear, intimidation, and AR-15s to rid their world of anyone not a member of the cult. You could be next.
Mark says
Oh Look! A picture of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
Robert Reed says
DeathSantis is a disgrace to human race, he is a little Nazi, and discriminates against everyone that isn’t white and rich. If you thought Trump was bad this little weasel is going to be worse. Vote Blue the party that cares about people of all races and genders.
Lets put these mini dicators out of business and vote them all out office.
The ORIGINAL land of no turn signals says
It’s not political it’s common sense.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
I am neither a republican) nor a democrat – just a common sense NPA and thank GOD! Children are not capable of deciding if they want to change their sex! At 10 years old I had a (childs) gun belt , gun powder ( cap) belt — boots – a hat and strutted my stuff with my friends. Did that mean I wanted to grow up to be pistol whipping male? I am very happy being a grown female who does not own a gun and who does not want to own a gun! This is insanity to even consider changing children’s sex they were born with until they are fully matured adults which at that point in their life they can pay to change what God gave them what they don’t like. In the meantime, drop this insane subject from our lives altogether.
A.j says
Keep voting Repubs, jeep getting poison results. Repubs will not get my vote especially DeSantis.
The dude says
I don’t understand the laser like focus on protecting us all from the trans kids… I really don’t.
The actual number of trans kids out there are statistically insignificant when compared to the full population.
Why all the political debates around this. when our world is literally burning around us, and our democracy is literally hanging in the balance?
Outliers are outliers, deal with them as such. Focus on the problems that truly affect us all.
Tedneves says
Please expand on the murdered children rant with actual statistics instead of running off at the mouth please.
Deborah Coffey says
Here you go. He killed them all. https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/09/09/child-covid-fatalities-nearly-double-in-florida-1390807
tedneves says
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-cdc-just-pushed-fake-news-on-covid-child-mortality/
I can find statistics also. This was also found in other newsfeeds.
Michael Cocchiola says
Tedneves… a POLITICO analysis of weekly Covid-19 reports from the Florida Department of Health shows that 10 children under the age of 16 died from Covid-19 from July 30 to the present as the Delta variant — which is much more transmissible — became the dominant strain. Previously, a total of seven kids died from the virus from the beginning of the pandemic through July, amounting to a span of more than 15 months.
Jonathan says
Gov. DeSantis suspends State Attorney Andrew Warren. Mini Trump rides ago, because his attorney general won’t discriminate for him. You think Trump was a want to be dictator, DeathSantis is going to be way worse. So just think about who you vote for.
Bell says
Rather than articles that manipulate data to push their agenda here is some “data” from NY.
https://health.data.ny.gov/widgets/du97-svf7?mobile_redirect=true
It appears NY has lost a few more kids than 17. 🤔🤔
Worn out with newsies that merely slant things to push their agenda. Not good anyone died but to use it to push an agenda is egregious. It is also egregious that some agencies manipulated data to push their agenda and that occurred also. Enough is enough.
Laurel says
JGY: I’m not sure why a cap gun would turn you into a male, but these kids have a serious situation. I too had a cap gun, and knew from the get-go I was female. That is not the same for everyone.
The idea is not to change children’s gender, it is to slow their hormonal growth until they can decide. By not slowing their hormonal growth, their bodies continue to form in the direction they do not identify with. That makes adult trans women look more masculine, which is not what they want. Ditto for trans men.
All in all, it’s not the damn government’s business to play daddy to us all, and intervene between us, our families and our doctors. The Republicans used to believe that government should stay out of our bedrooms. Now, they are literally up our genitals.