The doctors’ union has voted to oppose protections for gender-confused under-18s recommended by the landmark Cass Review and called for the recent restrictions on prescribing puberty blockers to such children to be axed.
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced it would review Dr Hilary Cass’s authoritative report, after its council voted to lobby the Government and the NHS to ensure they stop implementing her recommendations for children’s gender services.
The BMA also accused politicians of an increasing “transphobia which is ostracising transgender people and discriminating against them by blocking their access to healthcare”, and restated its opposition to the puberty blockers ban for under-18s.
Cass recommendations
In April, Dr Cass, who led the independent review of gender identity services for children and young people, concluded that giving trans drugs to children is based on “remarkably weak evidence”.
She urged the NHS to review its use of cross-sex hormones and ensure that gender-confused children receive a holistic assessment of all their needs. But the report left open the possibility of drugs for whom it is “clinically indicated”.
Following the publication of the report, former Health Secretary Victoria Atkins brought in temporary ban on puberty blockers for under-18s that is set to expire on 3 September.
‘Stand firm’
Responding to the trade union’s vote, the NHS said it has “full confidence” in the Cass Review, and the Department of Health said that the recommendations are “firmly grounded in evidence”.
It is a sign of how far fringe ideas about gender identity have progressed in medicine that this motion was not dismissed out of hand.
A Department spokesperson stated: “NHS England will be implementing Dr Cass’s recommendations so that children and young people get the safe, holistic care and support they need. We do not support a delay to vital improvements from the NHS to gender services.”
Helen Joyce, Director of Advocacy for women’s group Sex Matters, added: “This wide-ranging work took four years and is far and away the most authoritative synthesis of the evidence concerning the treatment of gender-distressed children and young people.
“It is a sign of how far fringe ideas about gender identity have progressed in medicine that this motion was not dismissed out of hand. The secretary of state for health should stand firm and continue to implement the Cass review in full.”
Puberty blockers
Earlier this week, the High Court upheld the last Government’s temporary ban on prescribing puberty blockers to gender-confused children in Great Britain.
Activist group TransActual UK, in partnership with the crowdfunding group Good Law Project, failed to overturn the Conservative Government’s emergency legislation, which protects under-18s from obtaining the drugs via private prescriptions from the UK or Europe.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has said he will permanently extend the ban after it expires on 3 September, welcomed the court’s decision.
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