20 AGs challenge AMA support for puberty blockers for minors

A coalition of 20 attorneys general are putting pressure on the American Medical Association to explain its support for puberty blockers for children, calling the group’s position inconsistent with the evidence after it recently came out against gender-related surgeries for children.

In a letter penned by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on behalf of the coalition and sent to AMA CEO Dr. John J. Whyte on Tuesday, the group praised the AMA for agreeing with the American Society of Plastic Surgeons that gender-related surgeries should be deferred to adulthood due to a lack of “clear evidence” to support the interventions. But the group argued the evidence is similarly weak for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones used to treat gender dysphoria in children.

“We thus find it concerning that the AMA continues to support the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria in minors,” the letter states. “The quality of evidence is the same as it is for surgeries: low and very-low quality.”

The group cited systematic reviews by the Department of Health and Human Services and Dr. Hilary Cass, both of which found a lack of high-quality evidence supporting these treatments’ safety and efficacy.

“So if you agree that there is insufficient evidence to support using surgical interventions to treat gender dysphoria in minors — as your recent statement indicates — we do not understand how you can find that there is sufficient evidence to support using hormonal interventions to treat gender dysphoria in minors,” the letter continued. “These interventions have not been shown to be any safer for children that surgeries are, and in fact may be all the more dangerous precisely because they are viewed as not as serious.”

“But hormones can leave a child sterilized just as surely as surgery can,” the attorneys general warned.

The letter includes a list of questions for the AMA about the safety and efficacy of these treatments. It also asked the AMA to clarify whether it endorses the policy statements and standards of care from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the Endocrine Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics, all of which support puberty blockers and hormone therapy for youth.

The letter said the AMA’s current position is inconsistent, and the group could face investigation for violating consumer protection laws. It noted that Alabama law, in particular, bars organizations from claiming that “goods or services” have “benefits or qualities that they do not have” or to engage in “false, misleading or deceptive act or practice in the conduct of trade or commerce.”

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The AMA was asked to respond by March 25.

“The American Medical Association has finally admitted what many have warned for years: its recommendations for surgeries on children were not grounded in solid evidence, despite telling doctors and families otherwise,” Attorney General Marshall said in a press release. “Yet the same weak science underpins puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. You cannot dismiss one intervention as unsupported while continuing to push the rest. When children’s lives and futures are at stake, anything less than full scientific honesty is reckless. The AMA must follow the science completely, not selectively.”

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The letter was signed by attorneys general from Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

Earlier this month, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons released a policy statement recommending surgeons delay all chest, genital, and facial gender surgeries until a patient reaches at least 19 years old. The new guidance followed an “ongoing review of the evidence” regarding these treatments and their effects on the pediatric population.

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“Based on what we see today, we cannot endorse gender-related surgical intervention in minors and adolescent patients, given the uncertainties that we’ve discovered,” ASPS President Dr. Bob Basu previously told Fox News Digital.

The AMA did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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