Liberal-leaning Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor compared the risks of puberty blockers and sex-mutilating surgeries for minors to the risks of taking Aspirin on Wednesday.
Sotomayor made the shocking comparison during oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti, a case brought by the Biden administration challenging Tennessee’s law banning sex change drugs and procedures for minors who believe they are transgender.
“They cannot eliminate the risk of detransitioners, so it becomes a pure exercise of weighing benefits versus risk. And the question of how many minors have to have their bodies irreparably harmed for unproven benefits is one that is best left to the legislature,” Tennessee Solicitor General Matthew Rice argued.
“I’m sorry, counselor,” Sotomayor interjected. “Every medical treatment has a risk — even taking Aspirin. There is always going to be a percentage of the population under any medical treatment that is going to suffer a harm.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, appropriate studies have not been performed on the relationship of age to the effects of aspirin extended-release capsules in the pediatric population. Aspirin is used as a pain reliever and is also sometimes prescribed to lower the potential for heart attacks and strokes in at-risk patients. The drug can render dozens of potential side effects, some which require medical attention, and others that are more mild, Mayo Clinic details.
The side effects for sex change drugs and procedures can be much more severe, including irreversible mutilation and infertility. Some of these so-called treatments include double mastectomies (the removal of healthy breasts), female and male genital mutilation and removal, facial feminization and masculinization, hormone treatments, and puberty blockers that can cause chemical sterilization. Puberty can also have long-term impact bone growth, bone density, and growth spurts, according to Mayo Clinic.
Transgender activists frequently claim that such sex-mutilating drugs and procedures for confused minors reduce suicides and improve mental health — dubious claims which increasingly appear untrue as more studies and data come to light.
Other research has indicated that a majority of children who are confused about their sex grow out of that feeling by the time they become adults. European countries that pushed sex change drugs and surgeries for minors before the United States are notably reversing course over concerns about long-term impacts.
In the United States, the top-down push for minors to obtain sex-mutilating drugs and surgeries under the misleading moniker “gender-affirming care” is clear, promulgated by President Joe Biden’s White House, academia, large hospitals, and major medical organizations.
READ MORE: Biden Administration Promotes Transgender Sex-Change Surgery, Puberty Blockers for Minors
At the root, these actors, along with the proliferation of gender ideology on social media, ultimately promote the false idea that human beings can be a different sex than what they were born as. Even further, the gender ideology complex claims these individuals should take sex-change drugs and get sex-change procedures to align their outward appearance with how they feel on the inside.
While the push toward transgenderism is heavily ideological, a report released in December 2020 found that the U.S. sex reassignment surgery market size was valued at $267 million in 2019 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 14.4 percent from 2020 to 2027.
The Biden administration ultimately asked the Supreme Court to reverse a ruling from the Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding Tennessee’s law protecting minors from sex-mutilating drugs and surgeries.
“This is a relatively new diagnosis with ever-shifting approaches to care over the last decade or two. Under these circumstances, it is difficult for anyone to be sure about predicting the long-term consequences of abandoning age limits of any sort for these treatments,” Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton, who was joined by Judge Amul Thapar, wrote for the 6th Circuit.
As almost half of the United States has passed laws barring minors from obtaining transgender drugs and surgeries, the resulting Supreme Court ruling will likely have broad-sweeping impacts for the future of so-called “gender-affirming care,” as well as parental rights.
The case is United States v. Skrmetti, No. 23-477 in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
