Musacchio added that “the permanent effects of the treatments and scarcity of objective study of their long-term outcomes make limits to the treatment of minors appropriate.”
The debate over transgender procedures on children renewed in Tennessee after a video surfaced in 2022 of a Vanderbilt University Medical Center official pushing for increased use of such procedures because they are “huge moneymakers.”
Matt Walsh, a Catholic Tennessean and popular Daily Wire podcast host, decried Vanderbilt University’s transgender policy and has been a major advocate for the bill banning sex change procedures for children.
“Vanderbilt got into the gender transition game admittedly in large part because it is very financially profitable,” Walsh said. “They now castrate, sterilize, and mutilate minors as well as adults, while apparently taking steps to hide this activity from the public view. This is what ‘health care’ has become in modern America.”
Walsh celebrated the bill’s passage, saying, “The Tennessee Legislature has now passed the bill banning child mutilation in the state. We’re fighting. We’re winning. And we aren’t even close to done … We were way behind when we started so there’s a lot of ground to cover, but momentum is on our side.”
But not all Tennesseans were as enthusiastic about the bill’s success.
“We have taken away a woman’s right to determine her health care and her health outcomes, and now we’ve gone to children. If a doctor and a family feels that taking hormone blockers is going to be healthy and productive and lifesaving for these children, that’s a decision that should be made,” Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN) has vowed to sue the state if the bill is signed into law.
“All Tennesseans should have access to the health care they need to survive and thrive,” ACLU-TN attorney Lucas Cameron-Vaughn said Thursday. “Gender-affirming health care for trans youth is safe, necessary, effective, and often lifesaving. Legislators are risking trans young people’s health, well-being, and safety with this dangerous legislation.”
ACLU-TN also attacked another bill passed by the Tennessee House the same day that bans drag shows from public property and venues where children may be present.
Peter Pinedo is a DC Correspondent for CNA. A graduate of Franciscan University, Peter previously worked for Texas Right to Life. He is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve.