NYT OPINION: What Decades of Providing Trans Health Care Have Taught Me
By Marci L. Bowers
Section: Opinion
Source: New York Times
Published Date: April 1, 2023 at 03:00AM
In states where such anti-treatment bills have passed, families are already in despair. Some fear losing health care for their children or losing their children altogether. Some are simply moving. Doctors and mental health workers in some states would risk losing their licenses for providing medical care to an already chronically underserved population. And if more laws that limit or deny access to care pass, the lives of transgender and gender-diverse teenagers are likely to worsen.
To be sure, worthwhile questions about how best to address gender diversity, adolescent mental health and teens’ expectations about gender remain. But answers to them will not be found in legislation that will harm — not protect — children, families and their health care providers. We must ask ourselves: Why are legislators and politicians making medical decisions for patients and families instead of doctors?
By Marci L. Bowers
Section: Opinion
Source: New York Times
Published Date: April 1, 2023 at 03:00AM
The field of transgender medicine is every bit as objective- and outcome-driven as any other specialty in medicine.
This year more than 350 anti-transgender bills have been introduced in state legislatures, pushing discussion about treatment for trans and gender-diverse patients further into the national spotlight. It isn’t hard to surmise that politically convenient doubts about the validity of trans identities have come to take the form of prohibitions against trans health care.In states where such anti-treatment bills have passed, families are already in despair. Some fear losing health care for their children or losing their children altogether. Some are simply moving. Doctors and mental health workers in some states would risk losing their licenses for providing medical care to an already chronically underserved population. And if more laws that limit or deny access to care pass, the lives of transgender and gender-diverse teenagers are likely to worsen.
To be sure, worthwhile questions about how best to address gender diversity, adolescent mental health and teens’ expectations about gender remain. But answers to them will not be found in legislation that will harm — not protect — children, families and their health care providers. We must ask ourselves: Why are legislators and politicians making medical decisions for patients and families instead of doctors?
Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/01/opinion/trans-healthcare-law.html
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