\n\tBlake Farmer, Nashville Public Radio<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJoe Biden and the New Left even promote surgery on teens and young adults, removing breasts and genitals.\u201d<\/p>\n

America First Legal radio ad, Oct. 9, 2022<\/em><\/p>\n

A radio ad<\/a> targeting care for transgender youth began airing in cities around the country this fall \u2014 from Spanish-language stations in Corpus Christi, Texas, to sports talk shows in Tennessee<\/a> to pop radio in Detroit. The ad, paid for by a political advocacy group founded by Stephen Miller<\/a>, a longtime speechwriter and senior adviser to former President Donald Trump, were deemed so incendiary by one radio station owner that they were pulled in major markets.<\/p>\n

The minute-long script from America First Legal<\/a>, titled \u201cNot Anymore,\u201d accuses President Joe Biden of \u201cpushing radical gender experiments\u201d with hormone therapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe Biden and the New Left even promote surgery on teens and young adults, removing breasts and genitals,\u201d the ad claims.<\/p>\n

With a man\u2019s voice speaking over ominous music, the ad says the White House is pushing boys to appear more feminine by taking estrogen and girls to grow facial hair by taking testosterone. The ad also suggests Democrats are pushing puberty blockers \u201cto keep kids from developing into normal men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n

In August, PolitiFact rated a similar statement<\/a> by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as \u201cMostly False.\u201d \u00a0The state\u2019s medical boards<\/a>, appointed by DeSantis, in early November banned hormonal treatment and surgeries for minors. But because the America First Legal<\/a> ad is directly aimed at a Biden administration policy and highlights what became a hot topic ahead of the midterm elections and in broader cultural debates, we decided to investigate further.<\/p>\n

First, we checked with America First Legal about the basis for its statements. The group didn\u2019t respond to repeated emails and phone calls. But its general counsel, Gene Hamilton, released a statement to Politico<\/a> regarding a news report about the ad: \u201cWe believe in biology and we believe that confused children should not be harmed permanently by individuals with radical agendas.\u201d<\/p>\n

A document from America First Legal that was filed by Detroit radio station WDRQ-FM with the Federal Communications Commission and obtained by KHN and PolitiFact revealed more specific justifications for the ad\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n

It cites a two-page explainer<\/a> published by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Population Affairs in March 2022. The first two paragraphs explain that gender-affirming care \u201cconsists of an array of services that may include medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical services\u201d for transgender people, and that \u201cearly gender-affirming care is crucial to overall health and well-being as it allows the child or adolescent to focus on social transitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The document seems to communicate that gender-affirming care is important for transgender and nonbinary kids but makes no specific endorsement of surgeries.<\/p>\n

What Exactly Is the White House Policy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Biden administration was asked about the ad in a White House briefing, and spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said simply: \u201cTransgender rights are indeed human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

HHS declined to explain its position on gender-affirming surgeries but released a statement to KHN describing what spokesperson Adam Sarvana called \u201ca disturbing wave of radical attacks on some of our country\u2019s most vulnerable children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Biden-Harris administration trusts parents, but we are unfortunately seeing interference in people\u2019s medical decisions that jeopardizes potentially life-saving care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The message suggests unequivocal support for gender-affirming care, especially to address the high rate of suicide among trans teens. One White House fact sheet<\/a> says the administration is \u201cconfirming the positive impact of gender affirming care on youth mental health.\u201d The White House frames access to care as a civil rights issue for transgender people.<\/p>\n

The White House statements largely echo those of leading medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics. The professional association representing 67,000 pediatricians has similarly been accused of pushing gender-affirming care, but Dr. Moira Szilagyi, AAP president, has been fending off what she calls \u201cextremists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCritics of our gender-affirming care policy mischaracterize it as pushing medical or surgical treatments on youth; in fact, the policy calls for the opposite: a holistic, collaborative, compassionate approach to care with no end goal or agenda,\u201d she wrote in an August blog post.<\/a><\/p>\n

What About the Guidelines?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The America First Legal ad specifically points to the issue of surgery for teens and young adults. This, in itself, is complicated.<\/p>\n

The guidelines from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health were updated in September<\/a>, and they do broaden allowances for genital surgery for minors. But such surgeries are rare. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which has been at the center of a firestorm over its pediatric transgender care clinic, said it has never performed<\/a> genital surgery on a minor.<\/p>\n

Breast removal is also more acceptable for older teens under the new WPATH guidelines. The numbers have grown in recent years but remain relatively small compared with hormone therapy, which is a far more common treatment for teens. Data analysis of insurance claims by Reuters<\/a> found \u201ctop surgery\u201d \u2014 which refers to the removal of the breasts \u2014 is growing each year, but fewer than 300 minors a year are having the operations.<\/p>\n

Dr. Michele Hutchison, chief of pediatric endocrinology at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, laughed at the notion the Biden administration is pushing such surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only people that I\u2019ve ever met that push it are the patients,\u201d said Hutchison, who also cared for transgender youth in Arkansas. \u201cIf anything, it\u2019s usually us, as medical professionals, saying, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s take a beat. Let\u2019s stop and think about it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hutchison said she has never recommended genital surgery for a minor.<\/p>\n

Does the Policy Equal Promotion?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ad\u2019s truth hinges on whether the White House is promoting or pushing gender-affirming care. What concerns Dr. Michael O\u2019Brien, a pediatrician in South Carolina and an LGBTQ+ advocate, is that the materials used to justify the ad read like \u201cobjective information.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe document from HHS does not promote or push any medical treatment so much as it describes it in technical terms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Even leaders of the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine, who are wholly skeptical of the acceleration in gender-affirming care, said \u201cit is not accurate to say that the Biden administration is pushing these interventions on kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPresumably, children don\u2019t read the statements by the administration endorsing gender-affirming care,\u201d a society spokesperson said. \u201cWe find the politicization of transgender health deeply problematic and unhelpful. Unfortunately, much of the U.S. has taken a politicized approach, on both sides of the debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our Ruling<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ad says: \u201cJoe Biden and the New Left even promote surgery on teens and young adults, removing breasts and genitals.\u201d Experts in the field, LGBTQ+ advocates<\/a>, and even critics of gender-affirming care say they find the message misleading.<\/p>\n

Some media outlets such as the Florida-based Beasley Media Group took the ad off the air, noting in internal emails published in FCC filings<\/a> that the company\u2019s attorneys found \u201cthe substantiation is inadequate to support the claims\u201d and that the spot is \u201cnot in the best interest of our company and or listeners.\u201d Some of the ad spots also were pulled by iHeartMedia stations<\/a> in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

The Biden policy specifically lists surgery among the \u201carray of services\u201d that should be available and notes that \u201cearly gender-affirming care is crucial.\u201d But the ad leaves out other types of care \u2014 such as mental health services \u2014 that are considered the starting point for caring for this at-risk population.<\/p>\n

The ad\u2019s key factual problem is the use of the words \u201cpromote\u201d and \u201cpush.\u201d Making sure a treatment option is available doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s being pushed, and to cast it as such is hyperbolic.<\/p>\n

We rate this claim as False.<\/p>\n

sources<\/h4>\n
Federal Communications Commission\/Katz Media Group, filing that includes ad justification from America First Legal<\/a>, accessed Oct. 27, 2022<\/p>\n
Federal Communications Commission\/Katz Media Group, filing regarding ad cancellation in Philadelphia and Detroit<\/a>, accessed Oct. 27, 2022<\/p>\n
Office of Population Affairs and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, \u201c Gender-Affirming Care and Young People\u201d guidance<\/a>, March 2022<\/p>\n
Phone interview, Dr. Michele Hutchison, division chief of endocrinology at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Oct. 27, 2022<\/p>\n
Direct-message interview with Dr. Michael O\u2019Brien, a pediatrician in training at the Medical University of South Carolina, Nov. 3, 2022<\/p>\n
Phone interview, Aurea Bola\u00f1os Perea of LGBTQ+ advocacy group COLOR Latina in Colorado, Oct. 27, 2022<\/p>\n
American Academy of Pediatrics president Moira Szilagyi blog post<\/a>, Aug. 10, 2022<\/p>\n
Email statement from Adam Sarvana, communications director of the HHS assistant secretary of health, Oct. 27, 2022<\/p>\n
PolitiFact, \u201c\u2018They Are Literally Chopping Off the Private Parts of Young Kids,\u2019\u201d<\/a> Aug. 10, 2022<\/p>\n
Endocrine Society, \u201c Gender Dysphoria\/Gender Incongruence Guideline Resources<\/a>,\u201d Sept. 1, 2017<\/p>\n
World Professional Association for Transgender Health, Standards of Care<\/a>, 2022<\/p>\n
Email response, Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine<\/a>, Oct. 24, 2022<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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