Bioethics Public Policy Report: June 13, 2023
Federal Courts
US District Court Judge Robert Hinkle of the Northern District of Florida (Tallahassee) has temporarily blocked the state’s new law banning so-called gender transitioning in the case of three specific minors. Hinkle, a Clinton administration appointee, maintained in his ruling that “gender identity is real” and that if the children in question are not afforded these interventions they will suffer “irreparable harm” caused by their bodies naturally maturing. The ruling comes after the parents of the three children sued Florida’s surgeon general arguing that so-called transitioning of children is “safe and effective medically necessary healthcare” and that the state law banning it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. A spokesperson for Governor Ron DeSantis (R) responded that the injunction is limited in scope and, aside from the three children involved, the law remains in effect. Click here for more information. Hinkle’s ruling is available here.
US District Judge Thomas Parker has blocked enforcement of a new Tennessee law that bans drag show from public places where children are present. Parker, a Trump nominee, stated that “despite Tennessee’s compelling interest in protecting the psychological and physical wellbeing of children,” the law known as the Adult Entertainment Act is an “unconstitutional restriction on the freedom of speech.” He also maintained the law was “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad” and it encouraged “discriminatory enforcement.”
State by State
One June 2nd, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott (R) signed into law SB14 which prohibits medical professionals from performing interventions for so-called gender transitioning on minors. The law prohibits puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures which includes removal of breasts. Practitioners who violate the new law risk having their medical license revoked. The law also prohibits public monies from being used to pay for such interventions for minors, it also prohibits Medicaid reimbursements. Texas is now the eighteenth state to ban medical transitioning experiments on children. The text of SB14 is available here.
Solidifying its status as an “abortion sanctuary” state, Minnesota’s next budget will not include funding for pro-life pregnancy resource centers. The budget repeals the Positive Alternatives program which distributed approximately $3.35 million to organizations that offer women alternatives to killing their unborn children.
Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo (R), a purported “pro-life Catholic,” has signed into law SB 131 which prohibits state authorities from pursuing or aiding in any criminal charges brought against out-of-state women who travel to Nevada for abortion.
Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo has vetoed SB 239 which would have legalized assisted suicide in the state. Lombardo said assisted suicide is “unnecessary” due to improvements in palliative care and pain management.
National
In line with the Biden administration’s “worldwide effort” to fly so-called pride flags at US embassies around the world during June, the US mission to the Holy See (Vatican) is again flying the flag this year. The embassy tweeted: “During the month of June, the [US in Holy See] celebrates Pride Month [and] stands with the LGBTQI+ community against discrimination and other forms of persecution because of who they are and who they love.”
International
England’s National Health Service (NHS) is severely curtaining the use of puberty blockers for minors. In a June 9th update titled “Implementing Advice from the Cass Review,” the NSH stated it “will only commission puberty suppressing hormones as part of clinical research. This approach follows advice from Dr Hilary Cass’ Independent Review highlighting the significant uncertainties surrounding the use of hormone treatments.” The NHS update added that, “outside of a research setting, puberty suppressing hormones should not be routinely commissioned for children and adolescents who have gender incongruence/dysphoria.”
Newly released (June 1st) statistics from Public Health Scotland demonstrate that the number of abortions that occurred in the country during 2022 was the highest number ever recorded. 16,596 abortions occurred in 2022, a 19.08 percent increase over the 13,937 from 2021. During the same period, there was also an 84 percent increase in abortions for Down syndrome babies.
Latest “Bioethics on Air” Podcast
Episode 114: Countering the Abortion Narrative – Part 2. In the second half of her interview, Dr. Monique Ruberu discusses her work with the Abortion-Pill Reversal Network and 40 Days for Life.
Of Note
“My abortion was one of the greatest acts of compassion I had ever committed … Abortion is a people’s rights issue.”—Excerpts from a Planned Parenthood video featuring “Lucky,” a female who believes she is a male, who had an abortion at PP and now receives cross-sex hormones from it.
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