A recent national poll suggests that an overwhelming majority of American voters believe that sex alteration surgeries and procedures should not be permitted for children.
When asked, “Do you think that surgery to change gender and puberty blockers should be allowed for minors under 18 or only be allowed for people over 18 years old in your state?” respondents overwhelmingly chose the latter.
Only 22% said such operations and medications should be provided to minors, while 78% said only those over 18 should be allowed to have them.
In a follow-up question, respondents were asked, “Do you favor or oppose a law in your state that would allow gender changing surgery and puberty blockers for minors without parental permission?”
The results were nearly identical to the previous question, with 77% opposing and 23% favoring such a law.
The Harvard Center for American Political Studies and Harris Insights and Analytics conducted the poll among a nationally representative sample of 2,090 registered voters.
The organizations noted, “Results were weighted for age within gender, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, household size, income, employment, political party, political ideology, and education where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population.”
Texas recently passed legislation to prohibit sex alteration surgeries and procedures for children. Its passage elicited outcries from activists who claimed the law would endanger gender dysphoric youth, as reported by The Dallas Express.
The ACLU of Texas has promised to fight Senate Bill 14 in court, tweeting, “Gov. Abbott has signed #SB14 into law, banning life-saving health care for trans youth.”
“Abbott can’t stop trans youth from thriving in Texas — and we’ll take him to court to make sure of it,” the group continued. “We are doing everything in our power to preserve access to this life-saving, evidence-based health care.”
On the other hand, some advocates have asserted that sex alteration surgeries are physically damaging and irreversible, and hormonal treatment at such a young age stunts development and can lead to health complications later.
Following SB 14’s passage, Rep. Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress), a medical doctor and one of the law’s authors, declared, “Children in Texas are officially protected from harmful, experimental medical and surgical treatments for gender dysphoria. … We knew there would be court challenges. SB14 was written with that in mind and will prevail.”
While some states like Texas have passed laws to ban such procedures for children, the U.S. national government is an outlier among the many other nations passing laws to prohibit child sex surgeries, as reported by The Dallas Express.
