Claiming abuse, Texas tries to prevent gender-affirming care for trans children

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• Judy Woodruff:

  It's the latest fight over transgender rights. And, once again, the epicenter is Texas.

  Governor Greg Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton have directed state agencies to conduct investigations of families when they provide gender-affirming medical care for transgender children.

  Abbott and Paxton went so far as to say that this care should be categorized as child abuse.

  Amna Nawaz has our report.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Judy, even though this latest decision does not hold the weight of law, families in Texas are worried.

  Here's what Amber and Adam Briggle, who have a 14-year-old transgender son, told us.

  Adam Briggle, Father of Transgender Child: It's traumatizing. It's anxiety-inducing. And there's enough ambiguity to create, I think, genuine concern that somebody is going to feel like they have been deputized to be a vigilante law enforcer.

  Amber Briggle, Parent of Transgender Child:: People think that, if it doesn't affect their kid, that they don't need to care about it, they don't need to think about it.

  And though we are a small minority in this country, the rights of my child matter just as much as the rights of your child do.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Medical experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, say gender-affirming care is safe and best practice for transgender patients.

  For more on that, I'm joined by Dr. Stephen Rosenthal. He's a pediatric endocrinologist and the medical director of the Child and Adolescent Gender Center at the University of California, San Francisco.

  Dr. Rosenthal, welcome to the "NewsHour." Thank you for joining us.

  So, when people hear the phrase gender-affirming care, often, they don't know what that means. What kind of care are we talking about? What is the sort of range of care you and your center provide?

  Dr. Stephen Rosenthal, University of California, San Francisco: Sure.

  Gender-affirming care really is an umbrella term that encompasses, first and foremost, a thorough assessment by a qualified mental health gender specialist, and then includes a range of possible medical options that range anywhere from fully reversible puberty blockers to gender-affirming sex hormones, and then, in some older individuals, perhaps some gender-confirming surgeries.

• Amna Nawaz:

  And so what does the science, what does the evidence show us about that kind of care? What is the consensus in the medical and child welfare community?

• Dr. Stephen Rosenthal:

  The practice that we follow is not out of the blue.

  It is really based on what are referred it to as clinical practice guidelines and standards of care, which are evidence-based. In fact, there are more than 25 years of published scientific evidence that support these guidelines.

  I think I could highlight one particular study that was published just two months ago in "The Journal of Adolescent Health," which made the, I think, very compelling observation that access to gender-affirming care, in particular, sex hormones such as testosterone and estrogen, to eligible adolescents, that this led to a significant decrease in depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So when you heard officials in Texas equating this to child abuse, what was your reaction? What did you think?

• Dr. Stephen Rosenthal:

  I was horrified. And I can only imagine how families, patients would reaction to hearing this.

  I cannot think of any medical reason to deny access to care, when every reputable medical and mental health organization in this country have endorsed an interdisciplinary model of care that follows the clinical practice guidelines and standards of care that I previously mentioned.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So, Dr. Rosenthal, we should mention Texas isn't the only place that we have seen similar measures like this that do target transgender children in particular.

  Twenty other states have introduced similar measures in the last year. And some don't pass. Some get stuck in court. But the very fact that this is a conversation, a national political conversation in many cases, is it having an effect on these children?

• Dr. Stephen Rosenthal:

  It is unquestionable that this is having an effect on children, feeling that people who — look, these are very complicated — complicated situations that are best handled through a very, I think, intimate relationship between the patient, the family and a qualified health care team.

  And when I say intimate, I mean medical professionals and mental health professionals that have been working closely with a patient and family and really get to know them and can do a proper assessment and figure out what is in that person's best interests.

  This should not be in the hands of politicians, particularly politicians who likely have never read the science, nor have ever even visited a gender program such as ours.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So, Dr. Rosenthal, if you — if you are a teenager in Texas right now, if your gender identity differs from the sex you were assigned at birth, if you are a family like the Briggles we heard from earlier, what are your options? What can you do?

• Dr. Stephen Rosenthal:

  We need to let people know that they are not alone, that they are being heard, and that people who are continuing to contribute to the science and to advocacy efforts are tirelessly doing that work.

  And, of course, what recently happened in Texas is not legally binding. And we will do everything we can to let people know that we will find ways of supporting them and that we will continue to do the science, so that we can continue to have a rational argument and contribute that to the discussion, and not just leave this in the hands of politicians it.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That is Dr. Stephen Rosenthal of the University of California at San Francisco's Child and Adolescent Gender Center.

  Dr. Rosenthal, thank you so much for your time.

• Dr. Stephen Rosenthal:

  Thank you so much.