Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, told Newsmax on Thursday that the Supreme Court's ruling upholding Tennessee's right to protect children from irreversible transgender transition procedures should be a "clarion call" to put an end nationwide to harmful surgeries and therapies being performed on minors.
Oz joined Newsmax's "National Report" to react to the High Court's 6-3 ruling on Wednesday that backed Tennessee's ban on gender-transition procedures in minors.
"I think it's a good example where the science has caught up with the rhetoric from the left on transgender care," Oz said.
"I firmly believe that as we look back on this era, when we misled a lot of people into thinking that it was hard-science evidence that it was worthwhile transforming children's gender because of feelings they had when they were young, and unable really to own those actions for the rest of their lives, many of these young children now, when they become adults, have been harmed irreversibly in ways that allow them to be appropriately angry with the system that allowed this to happen," Oz said.
"When Tennessee said, We're not going to allow this to happen anymore by preventing caregivers, many of them financially motivated, from doing these expensive operations, or giving hormone therapies that are also expensive and whose prices have gone up because of this market opportunity, the Supreme Court said it's their right to do that. It's OK to protect your children," he added.
Oz said the ruling should spell an end to these procedures from being done on minors across the country, adding that he will spearhead federal action to prevent subsidies for transgender procedures in kids.
"My agency, CMS, that we're looking with great intent at whether or not the American taxpayer should be involved financially in this. Why should American taxpayers be paying to have transgender surgery done on adolescents around the country?" Oz said. "These are all issues that are on the table, and this is a clarion call that will continue until these harmful procedures are stopped and they should not be taking place anymore in American hospitals."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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