Congresswoman Boebert Reintroduces the Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act
Today, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert reintroduced the Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act to prevent the use of taxpayer funds for unethical, experimental gender research on children under the age of 18. Her bill is the House companion to Senator Mike Lee’s bill that was introduced in the Senate.
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (CO-03) said, "Using taxpayer dollars to fund research that harms children is gross and wrong. NIH is using children as pawns to advance radical gender ideology, and this must be stopped. Extreme leftists believe that confused children should be able to irreversibly maim and disable their own bodies before they are even able to vote, and they want taxpayer dollars to fund these atrocities. I will never stop fighting to protect innocent children and ensure that taxpayer funds are not used to promote radical gender ideology."
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) said, “The Federal Government should never fund research that harms kids. This bill will protect taxpayers from funding spurious research, but more importantly, it will protect kids from the permanent damage this irresponsible research can produce.”
Congressman Bob Good (VA-05) said, "No taxpayer dollars should ever fund research or promotion of these life altering surgeries for children. We must do everything we can to stop the left from encouraging gender confusion of minors. I am proud to co-sponsor this legislation that would stop the assault of young children by the radical Biden Administration."
Congressman Josh Brecheen (OK-02) said, “None of our taxpayer dollars should be going towards funding radical transgender studies and experiments that target children. It is unfortunate that this legislation is needed, but that is where we are today because of liberals’ dangerous and predatory transgender ideology,”
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) said, “This is common sense legislation. Taxpayer dollars should not be funding reckless experiments that cause irreversible harm to children.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said, “Children are not capable of giving full consent to irreversible, life-altering elective surgery. Subjecting healthy, developing children to damaging and harmful procedures without a grave medical purpose is absolutely wrong, and taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for these extreme and reckless practices.”
Background:
The NIH Sexual and Gender Minorities Research Office (SGMRO) has awarded grant money to four pediatric clinics to study hormonal interventions on children with healthy bodies as young as eight years old. This means that due to a feeling of discomfort, girls as young as eight could receive high-dose testosterone solely on the basis of “gender identifying” as a boy. The Biden administration recently renewed and extended this research until 2026.
The medical interventions on the bodies of children done to “affirm” their “gender identity” are experimental, irreversible, and lacking in diagnostic rigor. Existing research on genital surgeries, called “sex reassignment,” show that they rarely produce the intended clinical outcomes of improving mental health and alleviating gender dysphoria and may even exacerbate these problems in patients. In 2016, the Obama administration concluded, after reviewing evidence-based literature, that studies “did not demonstrate clinically significant changes or differences in psychometric test results” after the surgery.
On October 12, 2021, Colorado Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved Colorado’s proposal to include gender affirming care as part of Colorado’s Essential Health Benefit (EHB) benchmark. As a result, Colorado requires Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and private insurance companies to cover puberty blockers, transgender surgeries, and hormones for children despite scientific evidence confirming it's impossible to reassign someone’s sex physically and that attempts to do so produce bad outcomes.
Congresswoman Boebert is extremely concerned about using taxpayer dollars to pay for experimental, controversial, and unethical healthcare and research. As a result, she introduced the Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act. This Administration is on the record supporting the legal sanctioning of medical experimentation on children to further their woke social agenda. This is not inclusive, it is abusive. American taxpayers should not be funding this dangerous, experimental research.
This bill would prohibit federal funds from being used to fund research or publications relating to gender transitions in individuals under the age of 18, including any observational studies that gather evidence on the provision of hormonal treatments or surgical procedures on minors, for the purpose of affirming a minor’s perception of his or her sex or affirming an identity if that perception or identity is incongruent with the minor’s biological sex.
Cosponsors of Congresswoman Boebert’s bill includes: Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Rep. Josh Brecheen (OK-02), Rep. Eric Burlison (MO-07), Rep. Michael Cloud (TX-27), Rep. Bob Good (VA-05), Rep. Doug LaMalfa (CA-01), Rep. Mary Miller (IL-15), Rep. Troy Nehls (TX-22), Rep. Andy Ogles (TN-05), and Rep. Tom Tiffany (WI-07).
Senator Lee’s bill has eight current cosponsors including Sens. James Lankford (R-OH), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Steve Daines (R-MT), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Braun (R-IN), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Marco Rubio (R-FL).
Groups Supporting: American Principles Project, Heritage Action for America, Family Policy Alliance, and Concerned Women for America.
Read the full bill here.