A Fight for Parental Rights: Illinois Democrat Legislator Proposes Bill that would charge parents with child abuse if child genitalia mutilation surgery is denied.
The left loves to make the claim there is no war on parental rights, no one is trying to mutilate your child's private parts. That's crazy! It's all a made-up right-wing conspiracy, but they're gaslighting. It is happening.
The latest comes from a state legislator in Illinois who wants to charge parents with child abuse who won't get on board with child genitalia mutilation that they call "gender-affirming care".
Illinois State Rep. Anne Stava-Murray (D-Naperville) has introduced legislation to the Illinois House of Representatives that would make it a crime for parents to deny a minor child's access to gender transition and abortion services, calling it "child abuse" in a bill that seeks to amend the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act.
In the legislation, which Stava-Murray introduced February 6, she defines an "abused child" as anyone "whose parents or immediate family member, or any person responsible for the child's welfare, or any individual residing in the same house as the child, or a paramour of the child's parent denies the child access to necessary medical care, including, but not limited to, primary care services, abortion services or gender-affirming services."
The legislation also would let healthcare professionals off the hook of civil or criminal liability for rendering abortion services and gender affirming services without parental consent.
The penalties under "child abuse" can vary from misdemeanor to a felony charge. Under a misdemeanor, parents would receive probation or up to one year in jail with fines up to $2,500. Felony charges include up to fifteen years in prison and fines up to $25,000.
The child abuse legislation is currently in the Rules Committee awaiting further action where Democrats maintain a 3-2 majority.
At least 18 states have passed laws restricting gender affirmation care for minors and an additional 14 other states are considering similar legislation.
The Illinois Republican Party, including chair Don Tracy, Illinois Senate Minority Leader John Curran (41st Dist.) and Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (89th Dist.) remain silent and have not commented on the proposed legislation, and it's pending implications for parents statewide.
Imagine that, rights being taken away, in this case parental rights, and republicans are nowhere to be found.
But that hasn't stopped Shannon Adcock, founder of Awake Illinois who has launched a campaign against the bill.
"In Illinois, parents who are considered child abusers can lose custody of their children if in this case they do not affirm transgender drugs, surgical procedures such as penis and breast removal, this is incredibly radical," Adcock said.
Stava Murray posted on facebook to explain and defend her position and the bill with a claim that allowing the transgendering of children "greatly improves mental health and well-being."
She also added, "Transgender children are more likely to experience anxiety, depression, and at greater risk of substance abuse and homelessness when their immediate caregivers are rejecting or hostile" to transgendering "care."
"It is important to know-and quite alarming, that research finds that transgender youth are at great risk of suicide (compared to their non-trangender peers) as a result of rejection, bullying, and other victimization."
Several people have commented on the facebook post, one saying the bill would empower department of children services to take kids from parents for not wanting to allow these invasive types of medical procedures to which she responded, "It's terrifying that you and your ilk want medically lifesaving procedures inaccessible to children due to their age. All doctors involved are adults and the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) recently released a letter in strong favor of gender affirming care. If a parent withholds a potentially lifesaving medical treatment from their child by threats of violence or physically preventing them from obtaining care and they cause permanent damage to the trans person's body through an unwanted puberty, how is that not abuse?"
So, there you have it. Child genitalia mutilation is life saving and not allowing it is child abuse!
It is interesting while the left and the for-profit gender-affirming medical care industry keeps pushing this agenda as necessary and life saving, their European counterparts doesn't seem to agree. One of Finland's leading experts on pediatric gender medicine, Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, professor of adolescent psychiatry at Tampere University, is one of many in Europe sounding the alarm on the practice to push children with gender dysphoria to transition, a practice heavily promoted by the United States medical establishment.
Kaltiala, a psychiatrist who has presided over youth gender transition treatments for more than a decade, said in an interview with Tablet, "four out of five" gender-questioning children eventually accept their bodies if no medical intervention is carried out. The doctor also said data from 12 separate studies supported her claim.
She also dismissed the idea that gender dysphoric children would be driven to suicide if doctors denied gender affirming care.
"It is not justified to tell parents of young people identifying as transgender that a young person is at risk of suicide without medical treatments and that danger can be alleviated with gender reassignment, she said. And added that the "transition or suicide" dichotomy was "purposeful disinformation, and spreading it is irresponsible."
Advocates for "gender-affirming care" frequently like to claim that 41 percent of transgender youth have attempted suicide, but according to research done by Genspect, an organization which advocates for a non-medicalized approach to gender diversity, who has created Stats For Gender, a data base of facts and stats with resourced links, says that number is highly skewed.
"Participants were recruited through transgender advocacy organizations and subjects were asked to 'pledge' to promote the survey among friends and family. This recruiting method yielded a large but highly skewed sample, according to the site. "By targeting transgender advocacy groups, the survey underrepresented the experiences of transgender individuals who are not politically engaged. Also, a high number of the survey participants had not transitioned medically or socially at the time of the survey."
A Swedish government-commissioned study found that 39 of 6,334 gender dysphoric individuals (0.6 percent) committed suicide, and U.K.'s largest gender clinic, the Gender Identity Development Service states that "suicide is extremely rare."
Unlike American doctors who aren't free to question "gender affirmative" orthodoxies will yield severe criticism and in some cases career damaging criticism, Kaltiala has the backing of professional medical groups in her country.
The Finnish Pediatric Society, the counterpart to the American Academy of Pediatrics, has come out against governmental support for gender self-identification in minors in a statement to the Finnish parliament.
Also, the Finnish Medical Association wrote that "the decision to limit legal gender recognition to adults is a good one."
These statements run directly counter to the American Academy of Pediatrics' policy since 2018, which, drawing on a highly distorted interpretation of the available research, recommends immediate and uncritical "affirmation" of minors, regardless of age. It also conflicts with the de facto practice in American schools of socially transitioning children upon request without knowledge or consent from parents.
A recent study from a non-profit research group, Sex Matters, in England takes a new look at the gender affirming model and shows the purported benefits are "no greater than a placebo effect.
"The gender-affirming model of care for teenagers is based on evidence that falls apart under examination," according to the group. "Researchers and clinicians often argue that gender-questioning teenagers need puberty blocker and hormone treatment because their mental health will suffer without them. But all long-term studies showing mental-health benefits from these treatments have serious limitations. There is strong evidence that this medical pathway causes physical harm. It can lead to infertility and loss of future sexual function; among multiple side effects, bone health suffers."
The group says a better approach to gender dysphoria is "supportive waiting".
"There is a lot of evidence to support it in mental-health research, although it too needs to be interrogated and tested in the field of gender dysphoria, the group says. "Its major benefits are that it has little potential to cause harm and a lot of promise for alleviating distress.
"Supportive waiting" lets children work out these issues instead of being manipulated into harmful "gender-affirming" care.
"It means validating children for who they are--what they think, what they feel, what they enjoy. It means accepting gender non-conformity, Sex Matters said. "It means helping children to reconnect with their bodies and to form stronger relationships with those around them."
Perhaps law makers and advocates like Stava-Murray should read some of this research and take some time to meet Chloe Cole who now travels the country talking about the permanent damage she endured from her gender-affirming care experience as a minor.
Cole, who was allowed to transition at 13-years-old, was given puberty blockers, had a double mastectomy at age 15, realized she had made a horrible mistake and began to detransition at 16, but her chance and opportunity to ever have children has been destroyed.
No child should ever be given puberty blockers or have their genitalia mutilated without parent consent. Parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children.
If you live in Illinois, you need to call your legislator and let them know you want your parental rights protected!
Actually, regardless of where you live, call your legislator.
Illinois is not the first state in which Democrats are attempting to turn parents who oppose allowing their children to transgender in child abusers.
The Maine legislature debated the issue, it was defeated, but Maine Democrats wrote into the bill to have children taken away from parents who oppose transgendering their children.
New York recently passed a new law that makes the state a "safe haven" for transgender youth and prevents parents from having a say in medical decisions for their own children.
In California, a law was enacted last year that forces courts to weigh conflicts over "gender-affirming care" in custody matters, giving favor to the child seeking transgendering over parental opposition.
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