Tennessee hospital resumes gender reassignment surgeries after pressures from ACLU
Tennessee state Rep. Jason Zachary (R) weighs in on ACLU-TN's threats to a Memphis hospital that temporarily halted gender reassignment surgeries.
A Tennessee lawmaker lambasted the Volunteer State's ACLU chapter Wednesday after the group attacked a Memphis hospital for halting gender reassignment surgeries and canceling a 19-year-old patient's scheduled procedure due to concerns.
"The ACLU-TN is deeply concerned with MLH's [Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare's] sudden and drastic change in policy regarding treatment of patients who are transgender and/or nonbinary," the group wrote in a letter to the facility last Wednesday.
"ACLU-TN demands MLH promptly rectify its unlawful actions… failure to do so will result in ACLU-TN filing a formal complaint seeking investigation," the letter added.
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Republican State Rep. Jason Zachary said, despite calls to "follow the science" and "listen to the experts" over the last two years, the hospital's decision does neither.
"Methodist Le Bonheur put a pause on gender transition surgeries and, after pushback from the ACLU, they then punted on that decision which clearly shows that has nothing to do with science and nothing to do with listening to experts," he told "Fox & Friends First's" Todd Piro.
Methodist Le Bonheur responded to criticism in a statement earlier this month.
"Our commitment remains to deliver high quality and compassionate care to any patient regardless of their race, gender, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression," the MLH wrote, according to the Tennessee Lookout.
"In recent weeks, some care providers voiced questions about patients receiving gender affirming procedures at a facility affiliated with our health system. This resulted in a temporary pause to review current practices. We have not changed our practices regarding the treatment of transgender and/or non-binary patients. We have not wavered from our commitment as a health system for all. We understand the physicians are moving forward with getting the patients rescheduled before the end of the year."
Zachary slammed the widespread push for gender-affirming care as a "social contagion" as the number of gender dysphoria diagnoses in minors – the group whose gender reassignment surgeries he finds most concerning – skyrocketed in recent years.
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The number of gender dysphoria cases in youths has nearly tripled since 2017. (Fox News)
"[The numbers have] gone from 21,000 in 2019 to 42,000 in 2021," he said, adding that he is "extremely disappointed" in Methodist Le Bonheur's decision to reverse its gender reassignment policy.
A University of California San Francisco study found that the number of "top" surgeries performed on young girls are 13 times higher than a decade prior, raising concerns among those calling for an end to the irreversible procedure for minors.
Komodo Health, a health information technology company, also found an exponential increase in gender dysphoria diagnoses among minors from 24,847 in 2020 to 42,167 in 2021.
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"Our children are so impressionable… when they're younger, we don't allow them to make decisions about what they eat, when they go to bed, what medicine they take, but now we've got this process to where they can make decisions about their gender," Zachary said.
"It's completely inappropriate, it's wrong, it's something that lawmakers need to be bold enough to stand up [against] and say ‘no, this is not something that we’re going to allow to go on in our state.'"
