Ohio trans healthcare should be left to medical experts

The biggest danger to children in Ohio isn’t Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, as former Ohio politicians Ken Blackwell and Bob McEwen claim in their Dec. 31 op-ed “Cincinnati Children’s aggressively promotes sex-change operations for minors.” Instead, amidst performative bathroom bills and transphobic attack advertisements, it appears one of the biggest obstacles to youth wellbeing is politicians who are obsessively bothered by the existence of transgender identity.
‘Do No Harm’ creates more harm for transgender youth
Blackwell and McEwen claim over 1,000 Ohio children are having sex-change operations − a figure provided by Do No Harm, a far-right coalition whose self-described belief is that “anti-racism” is “endangering the health and wellbeing of everyone.”
Do No Harm offers no cited sources on their webpage, making it impossible to verify their statistics. Even if we assume the organization’s data is accurate, over 75% of the “sex-change operations” Blackwell and McEwen refer to on Do No Harm’s website are listed as cases of puberty blockers, a reversible, non-sterilizing treatment sometimes given to transgender teens or non-trans youth experiencing precocious puberty.
Under current Ohio law, Cincinnati Children’s Transgender Clinic does not perform sex-change surgeries or prescribe hormones today. Simply put, Blackwell and McEwen’s op-ed uses out-of-context, exaggerated, or scientifically-unproven statistics to justify governmental control of individual health care decisions.
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Transgender and intersex people have always existed, and decisions about transgender health care should be left to medical professionals, families, and patients involved − not politicians who promote misinformation from right-wing think tanks and panic about a non-existent “gender cult.”
Do No Harm claims to protect children, but much of its online content seems more focused on framing transgender people’s existence as a moral failing rather than helping children questioning their gender identity access safe, affordable support resources.
As someone without a medical background, I am not qualified to tell medical experts what transgender health care should look like. Politicians aren’t, either.
Historic discrimination has led to a large medical research gap when it comes to transgender health care, but from what studies exist, medical professionals suggest many forms of gender-affirming therapies − many of which are not sterilizing, despite Blackwell and McEwen’s claims − improve youth mental health outcomes.
Political interventions in transgender health care only seem to have created more turmoil for transgender youth: The Trevor Proejct reports state-level anti-trans laws have contributed to a 72% increase in transgender youth suicide rates.
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Clearly, our current medical and political system isn’t doing enough to help these children − and messages like Blackwell and McEwen’s are not the best way to foster solutions.
Cincinnati Children’s is an innovative, valuable resource for our city
A primary critique Blackwell and McEwen had against Cincinnati Children’s was that the hospital supposedly made millions off of treatment that lacked long-term studies. While I agree health care should be less expensive, decrying an entire hospital network because of “experimental care” is not necessarily a strong justification.
Cincinnati Children’s is consistently ranked a top-10 children’s hospital and they excel in taking care of patients with complex conditions. I know that experimental care can be helpful because I myself received experimental care at Children’s as a child.
When I was in third grade, I suffered debilitating migraines on a near-daily basis. When nothing else worked, Cincinnati Children’s Headache Center gave my parents the option to enroll me in a study exploring how cognitive behavioral therapy and short-term antidepressant usage could treat migraines in children.
People judged my parents for letting me take antidepressants, but the study provided me miraculous relief: A decade later, I have not had a migraine since my six-month trial on Amitriptyline.
While I cannot speak for every patient’s experiences, I know Cincinnati Children’s has improved my quality of life and I am proud our city has a children’s hospital that offers innovative services for all youth − transgender youth included.
Blackwell and McEwen say that all children deserve protection from irreversible harm, and I agree. Medical malpractice anywhere should always be brought to justice, any health care treatment should always be evidence-based with the patient’s best interest in mind.
However, assuming that all forms of gender-affirming care are always malicious or that politicians have the most informed opinions on youth health care are fallacies that can endanger children.
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Cincinnati Children’s is the best-equipped resource our city has to support children navigating gender dysphoria in a political sphere where transgender existence is an attack-ad talking point.
Instead of focusing the conversation on youth health care on extremely rare surgical procedures seldom used in teenage transgender patients nationwide, Ohio Republicans should focus on reducing barriers to affordable health care or increasing public funding for pediatric research − measures that would actually have a widespread positive impact on youth health outcomes.
Meredith Perkins is a senior at Miami University double-majoring in Diplomacy and English. She is a former newsroom intern on the editorial page team at the Enquirer.
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