A new report from the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) confirms that the United States is experiencing an “epidemic” of childhood gender confusion and raises the alarm for states to enact legal protections to stop the “irreversible” and “abusive” medical mutilation of children.

The report, titled “State Reforms to Protect Children from Harmful and Irreversible Transgender Medical Procedures,” presents analysis of insurance data, academic research, and public health records to assist in legal reforms that will protect children.

“The intent of this research paper is to equip state policymakers with essential background information and reforms to address abusive medical practices and the drivers of the underlying social contagion,” wrote Christopher Schorr, Ph.D, a senior policy analyst at AFPI and the report’s author.

According to Schorr, more than 300,000 American children aged 13–17 struggle with gender confusion, which is double from previous research estimates made in 2022. This age group accounts for 20 percent of all gender-confused “identifiers” in the nation, despite representing only eight percent of the general population. Specific analysis from 2017-2023 insurance data and the Stop the Harm Database revealed:

• 13,994 gender-based medical interventions were performed on children.
• 5,747 “sex change” surgeries were performed on children.
• 62,682 hormone and puberty blocker prescriptions were written for 8,579 child patients.
• At least $119,791,202 in revenue was made from performing these medical interventions on children.

Schorr also highlights the serious side effects of these “reckless” and often “irreparable” interventions, which include sterility, impotence, stunted growth, and even cancer.

Citing that children are not yet mentally competent to make life-altering decisions, Schorr placed the sole responsibility for mutilating children on adults in what he described as the “school-to-clinic pipeline” that advances gender ideology under the guise of “affirmation.” It is adults, such as activists and politicians, who actually sow the seeds of [gender] identification by pushing gender ideology on impressionable children, including in classrooms around the country, wrote Schorr. 

“It is adults—specifically, men—who dress as hyper-sexualized caricatures of women and recruit children to publicly participate in their fetishes. It is adults who implement policies allowing boys into girls’ sports and intimate facilities and who mandate the use of so-called ‘preferred pronouns.’ It is adults, not children, who create the online social media platforms and pornographic content that fuels the transgender social contagion,” Schorr wrote.

Schorr noted that “children choosing to undergo irreversible medical interventions or choosing to identify” as a different gender completely neglects the role played by adults as the driving force behind the “social contagion” of gender ideology.

Regarding future legislation, Schorr reported that 59 percent American adults believe these gender interventions on children “should be against the law” and 56 percent believe “gender-transition” surgery on children “is a form of child abuse.”

The report ultimately recommends state legislatures codify child protections by restricting the medical industry that perpetrates these medical abuses. Schorr suggested legislation should “ideally” include provisions from numerous existing state laws, such as:

1. Prohibit all mutilating medical interventions for minor children (under 18 years of age), including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries.
2. Revoke medical licenses from physicians who violate the previous provision and/or classify violation of this provision as a felony.
3. Prohibit the use of public funds for [mutilating] medical interventions for minor children.
4. Prohibit insurance companies from providing coverage for [mutilating] medical interventions for minor children.
5. Make physicians who perform [mutilating] medical interventions for minor children legally liable for medical malpractice claims for up to 25 years after the child turns 18 years old and establish a minimum award of $500,000 (with no maximum) for injured parties.
6. Impose, in such cases—e.g., the “castration, sterilization, or mutilation” of a minor patient—liabilities upon other (e.g., mental health) professionals who facilitate that minor’s social transitioning with a minimum award of $10,000 for injured parties.
7. Enable the state to take temporary emergency custody of children exposed to or threatened with [mutilating] medical interventions.

Currently, at least 27 states protect children from gender interventions. The states include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Radical gender ideology must be completely rooted out from the medical industry and from government schools in order to protect children. All states need to take a stand against this radical ideology and enact legislation that puts a stop to harming children with these barbaric medical procedures.”