The updated policy “will reflect data and research on gender-affirming care since the original policy was released,” the AAP said.
The academy said it had voted to reaffirm the older policy and update it due to “the board’s concerns about restrictions to access to health care with bans on gender-affirming care in more than 20 states.”
Numerous Republican-led legislatures across the country have in recent years passed laws that outlaw many transgender medical procedures for children, including irreversible surgeries that can leave young men and women sterilized for life. The AAP said in its statement that it “opposes any laws or regulations” that “discriminate” against transgender-identifying individuals.
Much of the criticism against transgender ideology has historically come from conservative-leaning activists and institutions, though in recent years a small but growing number of nonpartisan critics has arisen to voice concerns over the push to allow children access to transgender medical procedures.
A group of nearly two dozen international doctors last month signed an open letter warning medical officials of “exaggerating the benefits and minimizing the risks” of those treatments for children.
Those risks, they argued, “are significant and include sterility, lifelong dependence on medication, and the anguish of regret.”