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WASHINGTON, D.C., February 25, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, slammed Richard “Rachel” Levine, a man who claims to be a woman, over his support for child “sex changes” at today's Senate confirmation hearing today for the Biden administration’s pick for assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“Genital mutilation has been nearly universally condemned,” Sen. Paul said. “According to the W.H.O. (World Health Organization), genital mutilation is recognized internationally as a violation of human rights,” he told Levine.
“Dr. Levine, you have supported both allowing minors to be given hormone blockers to prevent them from going through puberty as well as surgical destruction of a minor’s genitalia, like surgical mutilation,” Paul said.
“What I'm alarmed at is that you're not willing to say, absolutely, minors shouldn't be making decisions to amputate their breasts or to amputate their genitalia,” he added.
Formerly the health secretary of Pennsylvania, Levine ran the state’s draconian COVID-19 response, pushing nursing homes to readmit COVID patients and ordering two-year-olds to wear masks in public.
Levine also has been a longtime, outspoken proponent of transgender treatments for children and adolescents. In a 2017 lecture, he encouraged giving puberty-blockers to gender-confused children throughout puberty, followed by “sex change” surgery at 18. While transgender surgery “usually” is performed only on adults, “there are exceptions” Levine said.
Richard “Rachel” Lavine (@SecretaryLevine) and his perverse beliefs/agenda are a clear and present danger to children and the United States of America. #DoNotConfirmpic.twitter.com/N62JHj3xtL
— Matt Gaspers (@MattGaspers) February 25, 2021
“Hormonal interruption of puberty can permanently alter and prevent secondary sexual characteristics,” Sen. Paul, a practicing physician, said during Levine’s hearing. “The American College of Pediatricians reports that 80 to 95 percent of pre-pubertal children with gender dysphoria will experience resolution by late adolescence if not exposed to medical intervention and social affirmation.”
“Dr. Levine, do you believe that minors are capable of making such a life-changing decision as changing one's sex?” Paul asked. “Do you support the government intervening to override the parents' consent to give a child puberty blockers cross-sex hormones and/or amputation surgery of breasts and genitalia?”
Levine repeatedly refused to answer the questions, claiming that “transgender medicine” is a “nuanced field.”
@USSenate, #DoNotConfirm Richard “Rachel” Levine: pic.twitter.com/KOXVWOggkl
— Matt Gaspers (@MattGaspers) February 25, 2021
“The question is a very specific one: Should minors be making these momentous decisions?” Paul pressed. “You give a woman testosterone enough that she grows a beard, you think she's going to go back looking like a woman when you stop the testosterone. You have permanently changed them.”
“Infertility is another problem,” Sen. Paul noted. “None of these drugs have been approved for this. They're all being used off-label.”
“I find it ironic that the Left that went nuts over (hydroxychloroquine) when being used possibly for COVID are not alarmed that these hormones are being used off-label,” he added.
“There's no long-term studies. We don't know what happens to them. We do know that there are dozens and dozens of people been through this who regret this happening, and a permanent change happened to them, and you know if you've ever been around children, 14-year-olds can't make this decision in the gender dysphoria clinic,” Paul said.
Paul noted the case of Keira Bell, an ex-transgender British woman whose testimony helped convince the country’s high court to ban transgender “transition” drugs for most children.
“She read on the internet about something about transsexuals,” Sen. Paul said. “She ended up getting these puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones. She had her breasts amputated.”
The anti-life, anti-family Biden White House has called Levine “deeply qualified” and said “Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic … and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond.”
Confirmation of Levine in the Democrat-led Senate would make the cross-dressing, gender-confused official one of the top health authorities in the nation, with broad strategic influence at HHS, the federal agency that administers U.S. government health programs.