United Kingdom Enacts ‘Emergency Ban’ on Puberty Blockers for Minors
On Wednesday, the government of the United Kingdom declared a new “emergency ban” on the prescription and distribution of puberty blockers for underaged children, in yet another defeat for the transgenderism movement.
As the Daily Caller reports, the latest announcement follows previous decisions by England and Scotland in March and April, respectively, to halt the use of puberty blockers for minors under the age of 18, as the long-term physical and mental effects of such treatments are still not yet fully understood.
The new regulation will be enacted over a three-month period from June 3rd to September 3rd, during which private prescribers in England, Scotland, and Wales, plus “prescribers registered in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland,” will be forbidden from offering puberty blockers as a treatment for gender dysphoria. The ban will also prevent providers from participating in the “sale or supply” of such treatments.
“During this period no new patients under 18 will be prescribed these medicines for the purposes of puberty suppression in those experiencing gender dysphoria/incongruence under the care of these prescribers,” the government announcement reads. “In addition, the government has also introduced indefinite restrictions to the prescribing of these medicines within [National Health Service] primary care in England, in line with NHS guidelines.”
The drugs affected by this ban include “gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues – medicines that consist of, or contain, buserelin, gonadorelin, goserelin, leuprorelin acetate, nafarelin, or triptorelin.” Patients over the age of 18 will still be allowed to access such drugs. Also, minors who have already been on such medication for 6 months or more prior to June 3rd will be permitted to continue getting prescriptions for puberty blockers.
In recent months, the U.K. has cracked down on the promotion and use of puberty blockers, gender mutilation surgery, and other procedures championed by the transgender movement, which falsely believes that there are more than two genders and that anyone can simply change their gender at any given time.
A major milestone in the fight against transgenderism was the release of the Cass Review, a comprehensive report by pediatric consultant Dr. Hillary Cass, the former president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health. In her report, Dr. Cass concluded that there was “weak evidence” behind the theory that puberty blockers were a beneficial treatment for minors, and that the research claiming that such treatments are largely harmless was “insufficient” and “inconsistent.”
