Roger Marshall: “I would like to rise and talk about the STOP Act, Safeguarding The Overall Protection of Minors--Safeguarding the…”

“I would like to rise and talk about the STOP Act, Safeguarding The Overall Protection of Minors--Safeguarding the Overall Protection of Minors, the STOP Act. Now, I wish we didn't have to introduce this bill. You know, as I pointed out earlier, I got to deliver over 5,000 babies. I just took care of countless adolescent girls, young women as well. So this is a group of patients that I think I understand pretty well and the challenges in their lives. And I certainly understand what irreversible medical interventions do when applied too early, without the maturity for this young lady to understand the consequences. In many cases, the parents don't understand the consequences, and in other cases, the parents may not even know this is going on. Now, across this country, minors are being placed on pathways toward puberty blockers. So it keeps a boy from becoming a man. It keeps a girl from becoming a woman. And we will leave it that simple. There are medications out there that delay puberty, and, by the way, they have significant consequences and complications as well. Others are given cross-sex hormones, and, again, these are irreversible. Once a woman starts growing a beard, even though she stops a hormone, chances are that beard is going to continue. If it has caused her to have male baldness, that is probably likely to never return to normal as well. And, of course, these surgeries are irreversible. They are permanent. They are painful.”