TALLAHASSEE, Florida (LifeSiteNews) – Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) issued subpoenas to 20 organizations over their involvement in a lawsuit relating to the state’s ban on Medicare coverage for gender “transitions” for minors.
The subpoenas, issued in November to organizations including the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology (AAPP), and the American Pediatric Association (APA), seek to discover the organizations’ stances on “gender-affirming” care, the organizations’ decision making and leadership structure with regard to how they decided to promote gender “treatments,” what “treatments” the organizations use for gender “affirming” care and the side effects of any attempted “treatment,” and how many of their members support their “gender” policies, according to documents recently issued to the Daily Caller.
All organizations issued a subpoena currently or at one point have either employed people or themselves promoted child mutilation in the name of “gender affirmation,” the Caller reported.
The subpoenas also ask the organizations why they sought to file an amicus brief in a lawsuit dealing with Florida’s ban on Medicaid coverage for “sex-change” surgeries and drugs for minors. The plaintiffs of the suit, Dekker v. Marstiller, contend that Florida’s ban violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, a provision in Obamacare that prohibits federally funded programs to discriminate on the basis of sex, and provisions of the Medicaid Act.
In June, the AHCA announced that it was considering banning Medicaid coverage for child mutilations related to gender “affirmation” in a report discussing Medicaid coverage for “transgender” treatments. According to the report, “the available evidence demonstrates that [“transgender” treatments] cause irreversible physical changes and side effects that can affect long-term health,” it adds, pointing to the likelihood of infertility or sterility as a result of cross-sex hormones and “sex reassignment” surgeries. The agency introduced the ban in August.
In September, several LGBT activists involved with the Dekker suit attempted to file an injunction against the ban on constitutional grounds, though Federal Judge Robert Hinkle denied the request, arguing that the challenge was not a constitutional matter but related the Medicaid statute.
The Florida Board of Medicine’s legislative committee voted in October to ban gender “affirming” treatments for minors.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for minors confused about their sex, and neither type of drug has been studied in randomized controlled trials or longitudinal studies with gender-confused youth.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and the state Department of Health (DOH) released guidance in April explaining the harms from the chemical and genital mutilation of children.
Ladapo and the DOH memo pointed to “a lack of conclusive evidence” for “gender transitioning” and “the potential for long-term, irreversible effects.” The state also noted a review of hormonal interventions “show a trend of low-quality evidence, small sample sizes, and medium to high risk of bias.”
Data from before the August ban shows a drastic increase in the use of hormone drugs and puberty blockers. According to the data, released in August, Florida saw a 63 percent increase in treatment for gender dysphoria, a 270 percent increase in the use of puberty blockers, a 166 percent increase in children receiving testosterone, and a 110 percent increase in children receiving estrogen.
Florida is one of ten states that have banned Medicaid coverage for “gender-affirming” drugs and surgeries.
Earlier this year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott instructed all state agencies to consider transgender drugs and surgeries for minors as child abuse, and instructed the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate parents looking to give their children such “care.” Other states that have a ban include Arizona and Alabama.
The AHCA has yet to respond to LifeSite’s request for comment.
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