Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 26, 2024 / 18:30 pm
President Joe Biden’s administration pressured at least one health care association to eliminate proposed guidelines that would have discouraged doctors from providing sex-change drugs and surgeries to young children, according to newly released court documents.
Draft guidelines by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) in 2021 set recommended age minimums for certain sex-change procedures. It suggested the age of 14 for hormone therapy, 15 to remove healthy female breasts, 16 to put prosthetic breasts on boys, and 17 to perform genital surgeries on boys and girls.
However, following external pressure from Adm. Rachel Levine — Biden’s assistant secretary for health — WPATH eliminated its age-based recommendations entirely and declined to suggest age minimums for any sex-change drugs or surgeries. Levine, who assumed office in March 2021, is the first person who identifies as transgender to hold a Senate-confirmed position in a presidential administration.
The Biden administration’s influence over WPATH’s guidelines came to light in filings in a court case about an Alabama law that prohibits doctors from providing sex-change drugs to minors and performing sex-change operations on them. The documents show internal WPATH emails that discuss the guidelines and Levine’s suggestions that the association remove its minimum age recommendations.