“It destroyed me. It destroyed parts of my body. It destroyed my health. It’s absolutely not for kids.”
Those are the words of Chloe Cole, an outspoken “de-transitioner,” who regrets a decision she made at 13 to change her gender to male. Doctors removed her breasts when she was 15.
At a press conference Tuesday with state lawmakers, the Pennsylvania Family Institute and the Do No Harm organization talked about the dangers of “sex reassignment.” Do No Harm, a watchdog group, announced a new online database that catalogs pediatric sex change-related services, including surgeries, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers, at U.S.-based medical facilities between 2019 and 2023. The data is searchable by state and facility.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) was listed as number one on its list of “The Dirty Dozen” of what they call the “worst-offending children’s hospitals promoting sex change treatments for minors.” UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh was listed at number 11.
Rep. Paul Schemel (R-Franklin) said gender dysphoria is a “discomfort with one’s own biological sex.” A few years ago the House heard hearings about the treatment. Legislators learned of treatment with the “Dutch Protocol.” The first stage is acceptance of the child’s desired gender; the second is puberty blocking drugs; the third is cross-sex hormones; and the fourth is surgical intervention. That entails removing healthy breast tissue from girls and changing the genitalia for both boys and girls, he said.
During the hearing, CHOP officials said they’d referred several girls for breast removal at 17, but also some as young as age 14, he said.
Minority Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) said, “The harm that is done to children from an industry that taxpayers support to engage in services related to sex reassignment and transition-related services and drugs is not only life-altering, but in many respects we all would agree, and certainly in my opinion, is irreparable.
“Pennsylvania taxpayer dollars were and possibly still are used in sex reassignment surgery,” said Cutler. “And transgender medicine for Pennsylvania’s children.” If very young children are treated, “the health system has certainly let them down.”
The human brain is not fully developed until 25, he said.
“It is actually impossible for a young child to consent to this life-altering treatment,” Cutler said. “It is our position that no state taxpayer dollars should be used for this.”
Beth Serio from Do No Harm said the Stop the Harm database can look up local hospitals to see what is going on. Nationally, the group identified almost 14,000 children subjected to sex changes from 2019 to 2023 and more than $120 million in insurance claims. In the same time period, there were more than 800 child sex change patients in Pennsylvania and more than 300 underwent sex change surgeries.
“The child trans industry can be a very lucrative business,” she said. “Pennsylvania hospitals submitted over $6 million in claims for these interventions during our target period.”
She said their figures are “just the tip of the iceberg since some insurance providers were not included. Those numbers are likely an undercount of how much hospitals are raking in from the suffering of children.”
Sen. Judy Ward (R-Blair) said the database is the first of its time and “it chronicles a horrific trend, that our children are under attack.”
“These choices have consequences,” said Ward. “Children taking sex change hormones have an increased risk of depression, cardiovascular disease, and decreased bone density. Those who undergo surgical procedures often experience sexual dysfunction for the rest of their lives and may lose the ability to conceive children.
“Let’s face it. We don’t allow minors to buy cigarettes or alcohol for a reason,” said Ward. “How much longer do we wait until we step up and do something? How many more children will be butchered and allowed to make a decision they will regret the rest of their lives?”
Dan Bartkowiak with Pennsylvania Family Institute said, “This is one of the worst medical scandals in history. What this industry is doing is not health care. It’s harming children. While we should find ways to show compassion to students in grade school that face challenges like gender dysphoria, treating any student as a guinea pig with experiments like puberty-blocking drugs and removing healthy body parts is not in any child’s best interests.”
Schemel introduced a bill to allow patients of gender dysphoria treatments to sue those who provided it up until they are 30. Rep. Brad Roae (R-Crawford) introduced a bill to prohibit gender transition procedures for minors.
CHOP officials did not respond when asked to comment. A spokesperson for the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh said, “UPMC Children’s Hospital does not perform gender-affirming surgery on minors. The data collected by Do No Harm includes surgeries and services with no relation to gender-affirming care, making their methodology flawed and claims inaccurate.”
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