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(LifeSiteNews) — The Norwegian Healthcare Investigation Board (NHIB) is the latest European body to announce that the so-called “affirmative model of care” for gender dysphoric minors is not supported by evidence and is advising against the use of cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and “sex change” surgeries for minors. The NHIB recommended that these “treatments” be classified as experimental and noted that the spike in children identifying as transgender is concerning.  

“The knowledge base, especially research-based knowledge, for gender confirmation treatment (hormonal and surgical) is insufficient,” the report notes. “Little is known about the long-term effects.” Instead, the NHIB recommends that more data — especially follow-up data — be collected and noted that the current standards endanger children, who cannot consent to the irreversible impacts of these interventions. Media reports indicate that the new recommendations come after families complained about “safety, lack of parental involvement, and lack of follow up for underage patients.”  

READ: Tennessee governor signs laws banning drag queen shows and ‘gender transitions’ for children

In the United States, legislatures passing laws restricting the use of the “affirmative model” are being condemned by trans activists and leftist legislators as an extremist right-wing campaign targeting “transgender youth,” but the global scene actually indicates that countries like the U.S. and Canada are increasingly out of step with the medical conversations taking place in other countries. Norway is only the latest to condemn sex changes and cross-sex hormones for children.  

In the U.K., the Tavistock gender clinic was shut down after an investigation by the National Health Service concluded that the standard of care there endangered children and released recommendations opposing hormonal and surgical interventions for children in most instances, going so far as to strongly caution against “social transition” as confusing and likely to impede natural desistance as time goes on. 

In September 2021, over 50 medical professionals, prominent academics, legal experts, doctors, philosophers, psychiatrists, judges, and psychoanalysts in France published a scathing open letter condemning aspects of gender ideology and “gender transition” in children. Published through the Observatory of Ideological Discourses on Children and Adolescents, the letter laid out their concerns — and was almost totally ignored by the international press. American and Canadian newspapers have no desire to cover a debate that exposes how out of step we are. 

READ: Experts commend Sweden for restricting transgender hormone drugs for minors

In May of 2021, the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) reported that the Karolinksa Hospital in Stockholm, one of the world’s most prestigious teaching hospitals, is changing its approach to gender dysphoria, issuing a policy statement on the treatment of minors definitively rejecting the “affirmative model” and ending the practice of prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors. Biden and Trudeau call those who oppose these things extremists — they don’t mention that Swedish doctors concur. 

The Finns, too, are apparently right-wing radicals. Finnish medical guidelines now distinguish between early-onset child gender dysphoria and adolescent-onset gender, recognizing that some gender confusion or exploration can be a natural part of growing up and almost entirely forbidding medical intervention until “identity and personality development appear to be stable.” In the meantime, psychotherapy is recommended for gender dysphoria, and surgical interventions are forbidden for those under the age of 18. Puberty blocking is also considered explicitly experimental, and if utilized in severe circumstances, the patients are sent to a research clinic and medical professionals ensure that they are “able to understand the significance of irreversible treatments and benefits and disadvantages associated with lifelong hormone therapy, and that no contraindications are present.”  

The U.K. France. Sweden. Finland. And now Norway. Meanwhile, any discussion of the damage we are perpetrating against a generation in North America is condemned by those who call themselves progressive. It appears that if progressive politicians have their way, North American children will be tragically left behind — and they will suffer irreversible consequences as a result.  

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Jonathon Van Maren is a public speaker, writer, and pro-life activist. His commentary has been translated into more than eight languages and published widely online as well as print newspapers such as the Jewish Independent, the National Post, the Hamilton Spectator and others. He has received an award for combating anti-Semitism in print from the Jewish organization B’nai Brith. His commentary has been featured on CTV Primetime, Global News, EWTN, and the CBC as well as dozens of radio stations and news outlets in Canada and the United States.

He speaks on a wide variety of cultural topics across North America at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions. Some of these topics include abortion, pornography, the Sexual Revolution, and euthanasia. Jonathon holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in history from Simon Fraser University, and is the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

Jonathon’s first book, The Culture War, was released in 2016.

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