The Daily Signal - Born In the Right Body: Launch of the Biological Integrity Initiative

Episode Date: September 27, 2023

Doctors don’t have enough evidence to know the long-term effects of what happens to someone who takes puberty blockers as a child, the executive director of the American College of Pediatricians says.  "We know that if you stop puberty with these puberty blockers, you stop a whole sequence of events," Dr. Jill Simons says, adding that there also are "effects on the brain." "There's effects on the biology that you need that for sexual organ development to become fertile in the future," she says. But according to Simon, "There's a lot of things we don't know about stopping puberty, and you can't get that back once you stop the puberty blockers." Given the rise in gender-identity treatments for children, the American College of Pediatricians launched a new initiative Wednesday called the Biological Integrity Initiative to provide not only medical professionals, "but also parents, teachers, policymakers, even teens themselves who are questioning some of these things" with resources and scientific data on the known effects of gender treatments on children, Simons says. Simons joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain what medical professionals do and don’t know about the effects of puberty blockers and hormone treatments on young people and what resources the Biological Integrity Initiative offers. You can learn more about the new initiative at BiologicalIntegrity.org.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk. Business. We know what's right, and we've got friends backing us up, like heritage and lots of other groups. And so we know, we know in our hearts that this is the right thing to do. So there's no question in my mind that you can't silence us, and we're just going to keep doing what we do. This is a daily signal bonus episode for Wednesday, September 27th. I'm Virginia Allen, and that was Dr. Jill Simons. Dr. Simons serves as the executive director of the American College of Pediatricians.

A new initiative of the American College of Pediatricians is addressing a disturbing trend in medicine right now. Dr. Simon says she is watching as some of her medical professional colleagues are putting a social agenda above science and best medical practices. In response, the American College of Pediatricians has today launched the biological, Integrity Initiative. And Dr. Simons is joining us here on the show to explain what the resources are that this biological integrity initiative provides both to medical professionals, but also to parents and teachers and professors, and those who are curious about learning more about the true effects that things like hormone treatments and puberty blockers have on young people.

Stay tuned for our conversation after this. The Heritage Foundation is the most effective. conservative policy organization in the country. Every semester, our interns are a vital part of that mission. We pay competitively. We develop talent, and we give our interns access to some of the sharpest minds in the country. We're going on offense. So join us.

To learn more about the Young Leaders Program here at the Heritage Foundation, please go to heritage.org slash intern. It is my pleasure today to be joined by Dr. Jill Simons. Dr. Simons is the executive director of the American College of Pediatricians. Dr. Simons, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for having me. Well, go ahead and share a little bit of the mission of the American College of Pediatricians. What is your aim, especially in this moment in history,

and just talk a little bit about how you all were founded and where your goals are right now. So the American College of Pediatricians was founded a little over 20 years ago, and it was founded by a group of pediatricians who were unhappy with the direction that the AAP and other organizations were going in that they were becoming more political-minded and ignoring some of the science and abandoning some of those principles we hold deer in medicine. So they started the American College of Pediatricians, and the mission from the beginning has been to do what's best. for children and that means supporting them in supporting their families and also using sound research and science when we make decisions for medical care for children and dr. Simons how long have you been a pediatrician gosh I've been almost 20 years so about the same time frame and I'm fairly new to the American College of pediatricians probably about five or six years ago I was

driving to my morning rounds to the nursery, and I heard Dr. Kirtella talk about the American College of pediatricians, and specifically she was talking about the transgender ideology, which was just kind of starting to take off. And I thought, wow, there's other pediatricians who think like I do. And it was just so welcoming to not feel isolated. And so that's when I joined. That's wonderful. So when did you, and you, I'm going to answer to it in that question, but when did you begin to notice that there was this shift taking place, not just in medicine, but specifically in the pediatric world. I'm paraphrasing your words a little bit here, but that pediatric practices were starting

to be more so dictated by a social agenda than purely by medicine and science. So I think, you know, the shift maybe started a couple of decades ago with what the founders of ACPEDs noticed. Personally, and maybe for most of us, it's been the last 10 years, and about the last decade where some of these really radical ideologies, like the transgender ideology, have really started to have an effect on medicine. It was a shock to me as a general pediatrician, you know, practicing medicine, ear infections, colds, well checks, and then to all of a sudden be starting to hear about this transgender medicine and, you know, really different approach from anything else I had done. And like most of us kind of ignored it, it wasn't in my specialty,

you know, didn't get into it. But once I started having to be pulled in either by patients or peers, I researched and did some, you know, looking on my own and discovered, yeah, that what we're hearing is not the truth. And so I think it's like, it's a long story short, probably the last 10 years with this transgender ideology, ideology and specifically, but maybe, you know, even just the last couple years, it's really amped up.

Yeah. So in response to what we're seeing in the medical community and specifically in the world of pediatrics, you all have literally just launched a new initiative called the Biological Integrity Initiative. What is the aim of this brand new project? So the number one thing we get calls for my office is questions about the transgender, anything transgender,

whether it's a parent calling, and these are horrible calls and emails devastated by what it's done to their child or their family, or it's pediatricians wondering what to do, or policymakers wondering, you know, what does this law mean and wanting to look into it? So by far, the number one resource that we were being called on for was our resources on transgender.

And it was a part of our website and a part of our organization, but we really wanted to do this so that it could be easy for those who are searching to find. And so the website is the biggest part of this. But it's really our commitment as pediatricians and other physicians and health health care workers to speak out about the harms about the transgender ideology and what it is. And what it really needs is these children need compassionate care and they need to be cared for and the real issues addressed. And we shouldn't be doing these things to them.

And so we're just trying to raise awareness and we hope that this website and everything else we're doing with this initiative really gets the word out there. Because once people hear it like I did, you can't ignore its common sense. And so we just, as much as we can get the word out there about this and the facts and the science, that's what's needed. Well, I think so many Americans agree with you that it is common sense and yet there is disagreement within the pediatric community. Why do you think that there are pediatricians who are willing to prescribe a young child puberty blockers or sex hormones or even go so far as giving a minor a double mastectomy? There's a lot of fear out there. I have a lot of respect for my colleagues in pediatrics but other specialties. And I know a lot of the pediatricians that I

talk to don't agree with this, don't agree with these protocols that are so-called standards of care. But they are afraid to speak out or don't have the the research to back up their gut feeling that this isn't right. And so they don't speak out. A lot of people have lost their jobs or been threatened to lose their jobs, their livelihood, their license for speaking out about this. So it's incredibly hard for doctors to do that. That being said, that's what we do.

Like if we're not going to be speaking out, we're the experts. These parents are coming to us with their children, trusting us with their care. So we have to be bold. We have to be brave. We do it with everything else in medicine. We get the facts. you know cordial discord we discussed this but this issue by those that want to push this agenda do not want to debate do not want to have a discussion they don't want to

look into the research and I think it's it is a harmful ideology in that it has it is convinced people that if you do question it it's it's an issue of you're not being kind you're you're you know you're being transphobic you're being bigoted And so people just general, their human nature, you don't want to offend people. And so I think right there that stops a lot of people from speaking out and don't think much further from that. And a little bit of group thing thrown in there. Yeah. Let's go ahead, though, and take a few minutes and dive into some of those facts.

I think that's really important to talk about. And just for the American people in general to be aware of what is the truth when we talk about the biological differences between men and women. and the effects that things like puberty blockers have on young people. If a child who has not yet gone through puberty takes puberty blockers, what are the known effects on their body? Sure. We know that if you stop puberty with these puberty blockers, you stop a whole sequence of events,

and most of it we don't know. There's effects on the brain. and there's effects on the biology that you need that for sexual organ development to become fertile in the future. There's so many things, bone health, cardiovascular health, muscle growth, brain growth, I think I mentioned. So the biggest thing is there's a lot of things we don't know about stopping puberty, and you just, you can't get that back once you stop the puberty blockers. We do sometimes pause puberty, but that is only for cases where, something has gone wrong with the natural timing of puberty and it started too early.

So we are actually using those to treat a condition. When you apply puberty blockers in the case of a child who wants to try to be the opposite sex, you're stopping a normal body function and that's dangerous. Let's say a child is 10 years old and they go on puberty blockers for three years and then they decide to go off them at the age of 13. Do we know what happens in that child's body? Will puberty more or less restart? Or will there be permanent damage?

Or do we have enough research to even know? That's the question. There's not research. These are being done without knowing the true side effects. We know from some children who've been through this, but unfortunately most of the time, And once they start on puberty blockers, that puts them on a path to cross-sex hormones. And so that's a danger in itself that you're taking them to this medicalized life, a chronic patient.

But, you know, like I mentioned before, when you stop these, when you take them off, it's not like puberty just restarts. You know, there's growth that has to happen during that time with your bones, with your brain. There's a sequence of events. and so when you stop it, it's dangerous. Yeah. When you have conversations with those who have had puberty blockers and maybe, you know, they've then decided to go off of them or when you have conversations with detransitioners, what are to some of the common themes that you hear, whether it be from young people

or people who are now adults about their thoughts on things like cross-sex hormones or gender surgeries. So most people, most children or adults who've been through this, you know, they're searching for something. Something doesn't feel right. And they're being told that it's because they're in the wrong body. And so they look to this as this is going to help. And, you know, maybe for a while it gives them that feeling, this is what they say, this is what they tell us, that, yes, it is helping. And, you know, there's some euphoria and things that come from the testosterone and those high doses of hormones. So they may feel good for a while.

And then that wears off and they start to feel, you know, those feelings again. And so then they go to the next step. It's, you know, they're always looking for the next treatment. When that isn't working, it amps it up. And eventually, you know, they've mutilated their bodies. They've done lots of harms. And then so then on top of the original anguish and pain, they've now done this to themselves. and others have done this to them, you know.

So there's just regret is such an understatement. It's just really devastating to these poor children. Yeah. We hear so much debate specifically right now around the issue of sports. And obviously, you know, this brings up questions of sports teams and biological men trying to compete on women's sports, and that's been such a hot topic in the news over the past couple of years. And we're increasingly starting to hear a really interesting argument of folks who say, well, you know, there really aren't any proven biological differences between a

transgender, quote-unquote transgender woman, so a male who identifies as a woman, and a biological woman. What is your response to that? You know, I think they're just ignoring the science. there's definite biological differences between men and women, especially, you know, once they've gone through puberty. But even before, it's innate. It's in your, every cell in your body. So, you know, you can't undo the muscle mass that a male obtains, you know, through the natural effects of puberty. Even if you put puberty blockers and then you give them estrogen or female hormones, there's, you know, there's just a size difference. a muscle difference, cardiovascular difference. So, you know, there may be, on an individual level, of course, you know, some girls who are

faster than boys or who are physically stronger, but as a whole, no doubt that boys, men have these physical advantages when it comes to sports. Well, as you all roll out this brand new initiative, the biological integrity initiative, what do you think the response is going to be from the pediatric community, some of whom obviously does not agree with the stance that you've taken? So for our friends and our allies and those that are desperately needing this information, they have been so anxiously waiting this. I mean, I get emails all the time, Wednesday, your website going live,

you know, can we use this and trying to give them little sneak peeks to hold them over the information that they need. But this is much anticipated just to help all these other kids. groups like ACPeds who are trying to help. So I'm already getting excitement and thanks for that. I know though for those that want to silence us, they don't want this out there because they don't want people to know the truth because once parents, once pediatricians do, they see really for it for what it really is and the harms that it has. It also, when you speak out, as a doctor and I'm speaking to my doctor colleagues with this, you step out of isolation. And I think, you know, when you're up against people who want to silence you, that's one of the

things they want to do is isolate you and make you feel like you're in the minority opinion, but you're not. And there are lots of good people out there working to get this truth out there. So we're expecting, we're expecting, you know, not such a great reception from something. some. Yeah. Well, moving forward with the debate over transgenderism and gender ideology and gender identity, how do you see this debate shifting, let's say, in the next five years? And how do you see your platform at Biological Integrity Initiative? How do you see that playing a role even in the conversation moving forward in the medical community specifically? So some interesting developments in this whole debate. First is international.

If you look at the trends, many countries, European countries, Sweden, the UK, Finland, they've walked back these policies, and they've become more conservative going to what we would like to see as counseling and really looking into the underlying mental and social, physical problems that these children are having. And so they've gone to reverse to that. So introducing that into the debate certainly makes people want to stop and pause what we're doing here in the U.S. and learn from other country's experiences. The other important piece of this debate is the insurance companies are now getting involved as detransitioners are bravely stepping forward and saying, you know, I was not informed. I could not consent to this and how could this have happened to me. So now insurance companies are getting into the mix, and they're looking into, is this something we want to support?

And, you know, of course, the health care dollars speak when it comes to it. And then the other part that you mentioned is the sports aspect. So not only just the medical harms to these children, but the harms that we're doing to women and children, you know, basically making them irrelevant. So those are three key newer developments in the debate that I think will take us further in the next couple years. Absolutely. Well, within the pediatric community and within the community that's debating transgenderism and gender identity, not only do you all have folks that are just saying that they don't agree, but you have really faced a lot of pushback as well.

You look at groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center. They've labeled you all as a hate. group, what is your response to those that are really vehemently opposing the work that you're doing? It's cowardly. You know, we've offered to debate and to talk about this. We're here for the best for children. We have no other agenda. And people who know the Southern Poverty Law Center and what they do know that, you know, they themselves are a hate group. And, and, and, you know, they, you know, you know, have attacked some other night good groups that are doing good things. So so people know their true colors. But I, you know, in the other attacks we get or name calling all that. I mean,

it's just, it's cowardly. So we just, we know what's right. And we've got friends backing us up, like heritage and lots of other groups. And so we, we know, we know in our hearts that this is the right thing to do. So there's, there's no question in my mind that, you can't silence us and we're just going to keep doing what we do. Well, let's talk about some of those resources, specifically that people can find at biological integrity.orgi. That's the website. Who should be going to this website and what can they expect to learn there when they visit it? So it's going to go live Wednesday and the 27th. And it is unlike our ACP's website, which is maybe a little bit more medical ease and a little bit more.

technical. This site is meant to be more user-friendly. So not only pediatricians can go there, but also parents, teachers, policy makers, even teens themselves who are questioning some of these things, who want a trusted resource. We do, though, provide concrete, you know, scientific evidence and the research to back up the statements we make on there. It's just presented in a little bit more easy to read format. We will have fact sheets that people can print out with kind of some of the things you and I talked about with the puberty blockers. Kind of what do you need to know kind of in a nutshell? But then if you want to dive deeper and see the sources for these papers and have that for what you're working on, that will be available.

We've got videos, testimony from some of these detransitioners. We have links to other groups who are in this with us, and so linking their resources. because we truly all are on the same side of this and just want to combine our efforts and speak together. So there'll be resources for that. We have a country map that has all the states and you can see what's happening in your state and the direction that this country is going.

And so you can get to support that or just stay involved on the political side of this. So lots of things, there's also a contact us if you want to get in touch with a pediatrician or someone, a counselor, if your family or your child is going through this. So we just hope that this can just be a beacon for people to go and find what they need. Well, that's critical. Dr. Simons, thank you so much your time today. We encourage everyone to check out both the American College of Pediatrician's website,

as well as please visit Biological Integrity.org. Those are such needed resources at this moment in history. Dr. Simons. Thank you for all the work that you're doing today. Thanks for being with us. Thank you so much. And with that, that's going to do it for today's bonus episode of the Daily Signal podcast. Thanks so much for joining us today. If you haven't had a chance, make sure that you check out our evening show. It's right here in this same podcast feed.

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