Alberta doctors question science behind UCP's policies on health-care for trans youth
CTV
Doctors are criticizing Alberta Premier Danielle Smith for her medically "false" statements about transgender youth care and gender reassignment surgery, saying her plan risks harming the vulnerable group.
Doctors are criticizing Alberta Premier Danielle Smith for her medically "false" statements about transgender youth care and gender reassignment surgery, saying her plan risks harming the vulnerable group.
In a video posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Smith said the province will ban puberty blockers and hormone therapy for children 15 and younger except for those who have already started those treatments. Those who are 16 and 17 can begin hormone treatment as long as they’re deemed mature enough and have parental, physician and psychologist approval.
Top and bottom surgeries for people 17 and under will also not be permitted.
"Making permanent and irreversible decisions regarding one's biological sex while still a youth can severely limit that child's choices in the future. Prematurely encouraging or enabling children to alter their very biology or natural growth, no matter how well-intentioned and sincere, poses a risk to that child's future that I, as premier, am not comfortable with permitting in our province," Smith said in the video posted Wednesday.
On Thursday, she said changes involving the new policies will be rolled out in the fall sitting in the form of legislation, regulation and policies. She did not rule out using the Charter's notwithstanding clause to preserve them.
Dr. Tehseen Ladha, a pediatrician in Edmonton, said Smith is stoking fears by inferring as "dangerous" the therapies that are offered after extensive consultations among pediatricians, mental health experts and endocrinologists, sometimes over several years.
"Firstly, she doesn't have the medical expertise to be able to make that decision about whether gender-affirming care is appropriate. Secondly, calling some of these things irreversible or harmful is simply false," Ladha said.
