Republican attorneys general across the country and major medical organizations are trying to help persuade a federal appeals court as it considers Florida’s restrictions on transgender treatment .
Briefs filed Friday in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals offer conflicting views on treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, especially for adolescents with gender dysphoria.
This summer, the state went to the Atlanta-based appeals court in two cases after U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled against banning Medicaid coverage for such treatments and block regulations that prevent minors from receiving treatments.
Republican attorneys general from 18 states signed on to a friend of the court brief on Friday calling on the appeals court to overturn Hinkles’ ruling in the Medicaid case. They argue that the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s decision to block Medicaid coverage for the treatments should receive due respect and debate from the many medical organizations that support the use of the drugs puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
Like other organizations, America’s health care organizations are becoming more effective, viewed by their leaders as platforms to advance the issues of the moment, the attorney general said. know. Add to that the replication crisis in the scientific literature and the ability of researchers to use statistics to make findings seem important when they aren’t, and it’s no surprise. However, medical organizations find it easier to follow the zeitgeist. The science is difficult and as things stand, there is no reward for any organization that questions the safety and effectiveness of using gender reassignment sterilization procedures on children .
But 23 medical organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the Endocrine Society, filed a brief on Friday in a lawsuit over the juvenile rules. and states that denying such evidence-based medical care to adolescents meets the necessary medical requirements. criteria that put them at risk of significant harm.
The generally accepted view of the professional medical community is that gender-affirming care is an appropriate treatment for gender dysphoria and that, for some adolescents, affirming medical interventions Gender determination is necessary, health organizations say. This care significantly reduces the negative physical and mental consequences when gender dysphoria goes untreated.
With Gov. Ron DeSantis making the issue a top priority, Florida regulators and legislatures in 2022 and this year approved restrictions on treatments for people with the condition. gender dysphoria. The moves come amid politically charged debates across the country over transgender issues, with Republican-controlled states passing similar restrictions.
The generally accepted view of the professional medical community is that gender-affirming care is an appropriate treatment for gender dysphoria and that, for some adolescents, affirming medical interventions Gender determination is necessary. This care significantly reduces the negative physical and mental consequences when gender dysphoria goes untreated.
The brief was filed Friday by 23 medical organizations
This issue focuses on treatments for gender dysphoria, which the federal government defines clinically as significant distress a person may feel when assigned sex or gender at birth is not the same as their identity.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration last year passed a rule prohibiting Medicaid reimbursement to health care providers for treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy. The agency that runs much of the Medicaid program based its decision on a report that concluded the treatments were experimental and not medically necessary, and therefore did not meet the spending threshold. paid by Medicaid. The report is from researchers who oppose the treatments.
The state Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine also approved regulations blocking puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors. DeSantis and the Legislature this spring effectively put those rules into law.
However, Hinkle ruled against the restrictions in two decisions in June. For example, in the case of blocking treatment for minors, the judge said the statute and rules were a political exercise, not good medicine.
Hinkle wrote: The Act and rules at issue are motivated in significant part by the clearly unlawful purposes of non-acceptance of transgender status and of discouraging individuals from pursuing a neutral gender identity. their reality. This is targeted discrimination against transgender people.
But the state and Republican attorneys general dispute the view of major medical organizations that the treatments are proven and necessary. Also on Friday, the American College of Pediatrics, which said on its website that it is leading the charge against the harmful effects of transgender interventions on minors, filed a brief supporting the state in the Medicaid case.
The attorneys general brief was led by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and included the chief legal officers in Georgia , Montana, Idaho, Nebraska, Indiana, South Carolina, Iowa, Texas, Kansas , Utah, Kentucky, Virginia, Mississippi, West Virginia and Missouri.
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