Coerced genital mutilation comes to America

By Tom Quiner

Genital mutilation is an international problem.

Two-hundred million women have been victims of coerced genital mutilation. They are concentrated in 30 nations, spreading from Africa to the Middle East to Asia.

Coerced genital mutilation has come to the U.S. thanks to an edict from the Obama Administration’s HHS agency. In new, sweeping regulations, the term ‘sex’ is now redefined to mean ‘gender identity’ in healthcare treatments covered under ‘Obamacare.’

This could have a profound impact on Catholic doctors and other physicians of good will who believe gender identity is a biological reality, not an affliction to be treated as a disease if it misaligns with a person’s psyche.

Writing in the Daily Signal, Ryan Anderson explains the significance:

“The regulations create special privileges based on gender identity that will lead to unreasonable and costly litigation for physicians, hospitals, insurers, and others involved in health care. They will effectively require controversial procedures, such as “sex-reassignment” surgery, that respected medical professionals argue have not been proven to be effective in treating serious mental health conditions. Rather than respect the diversity of opinions on sensitive and controversial health care issues, the proposed regulations endorse and enforce one view.”

In other words, if a doctor has the skills to provide such treatments, they could be coerced to perform genital mutilation whether they believe it is in patients’ best interests or not.

Not treating a boy who wants to be a girl would become more than politically incorrect, it would subject physicians to the full force and fury of the federal government.

And yet, is it wise to compel the medical community to implement treatments on young people, some of which are irreversible? Dr. Paul McHugh says no. He is a University Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the author, co-author, or editor of seven books within his field. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he warned of the dangers:

“When children who reported transgender feelings were tracked without medical or surgical treatment at both Vanderbilt University and London’s Portman Clinic, 70%-80% of them spontaneously lost those feelings. Some 25% did have persisting feelings; what differentiates those individuals remains to be discerned.”

Tragically, the incidence of suicide is shockingly high among those who pursue gender reassignment, says Dr. McHugh:

“A 2011 study at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden produced the most illuminating results yet regarding the transgendered, evidence that should give advocates pause. The long-term study—up to 30 years—followed 324 people who had sex-reassignment surgery. The study revealed that beginning about 10 years after having the surgery, the transgendered began to experience increasing mental difficulties. Most shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost 20-fold above the comparable nontransgender population.”

The Obama administration doesn’t care.

They are embarked on a  crusade to impose their own cultural Marxism on this country. Sure, Obamacare was built on a foundation of coercion. But it never intended what the Obama Government is imposing on the medical community.

Liberals properly gnash their teeth over men who coerce women in third world countries to undergo genital mutilation. They have no such angst over compelling doctors to do the same in this country.