In a refreshing and resounding sign of clarity and common sense, the Alaska State Medical Board (ASMB) unanimously adopted a statement yesterday urging the Alaska Legislature to stop chemical and surgical mutilation of minors.

The statement, sent to all 60 members of the Legislature, was signed by Board Chair Brent Taylor, MD and Legislative Liaison Dr. Matt Heilala, DPM, MBA. It contained just one paragraph:

“The Alaska State Medical Board opposes hormonal and surgical treatments for gender dysphoria in minors due to insufficient evidence of long-term benefits and risks of irreversible harm. We view these interventions as lacking legitimacy as standard medical practice for those under the age of 18 years old. We support legislative limits on such treatments and promote psychological support and counseling as safer alternatives. This reflects our duty to protect patients and uphold evidence-based care.”

Fully half of all states have implemented laws protecting kids from irreversible and damaging medical interventions on minors. President Trump issued an executive order earlier this year on this matter stating, “Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding. Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.”

If you are aware of any hospital in Alaska that is still performing sex change surgeries on minors or prescribing cross sex hormones or puberty blockers, please send an email to jim@akfamily.org.

More than 60 studies have been issued debunking the left-wing claim that puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and mutilation surgery are beneficial for young people with gender dysphoria. In actuality, “the procedures cause serious harms, especially when done with impressionable children who lack the mental development, emotional maturity, and life experience to consider the long-term ramifications of the decisions being pushed on them or full knowledge about the long-term effects of life-altering, physically transformative, and often irreversible surgical and chemical procedures.”

What’s Next in Alaska?

Unfortunately, ASMB’s unanimous recommendation to the Alaska Legislature, due to Democrats now leading both the House and Senate, will likely see no action as Democrats continue to double down on the radical and unscientific notion that children are trapped in the wrong body.

With that inevitable outcome, it will now be up to the ASMB to work with Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor and the Department of Law to determine the extent to which they can propose and implement regulations stopping the medical interventions and ultimately hold health care professionals accountable for what is essentially medical malpractice on minors.

In early 2024, Eagle River Republican House member Jamie Allard, a staunch advocate for defending girls sports and children from sex change procedures, introduced a bill to hold health care professionals liable when they harm youth through this kind of medical malpractice. The bill did not receive a hearing.

At least one other state medical board has taken action on this issue. In 2022, the Florida Board of Medicine became the first medical board in the country to bar all minors in the state from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgeries as treatment for gender dysphoria. Ultimately, the Florida legislature, in response to the advice by their own Board of Medicine, passed legislation banning the procedures that Governor DeSantis quickly signed into law.

As reported by the Alaska Watchman, multiple health care facilities in the Great Land, including Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, South Peninsula Hospital, Providence Alaska Medical Center, Alaska Regional Hospital, Barlett Regional Hospital, PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center and Central Peninsula Hospital have provided sex change medical interventions on minors. With the Trump Administration promising to withhold federal funds, many hospitals have stopped these harmful practices. It is unclear at this point how many Alaskan hospitals are still providing these services.

Many health clinics, including Identity Inc. in Anchorage and others, have for a long time and continue to prescribe puberty blockers and cross sex hormones to youth.

Alaska Family Council has been working tirelessly on this issue for some time and was privileged in 2023 to bring up Chloe Cole, a national voice on the harms of sex change medical procedures, to shed light on this matter and encourage people to take a stand against this madness.

If you are aware of any hospital in Alaska that is still performing sex change surgeries on minors or prescribing cross sex hormones or puberty blockers, please send an email to jim@akfamily.org and we will pursue action as possible within the scope of President Trump’s Executive Order.

In the meantime, we encourage all Alaskans to send a note of thanks to Alaska State Medical Board by clicking HERE.

As always, please know that our work at Alaska Family Council is entirely dependent on the generosity of like-minded Alaskans who believe that a voice for truth and sanity is needed in the Great Land. CLICK HERE to partner with us financially.

The views expressed here are those of the author.

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