Republicans’ commitment to ending the mutilation of children is being tested this week with the upcoming House vote on the Protect Children’s Innocence Act.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and co-sponsored by more than 40 other House Republicans, seeks to criminalize providing transgender surgeries or medications to minors in the United States. It also creates a right to action to sue for damages if a minor is a victim of a transgender procedure, such as the administration of cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, or genital surgeries.
Laura Bryant Hanford, a visiting fellow at the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Human Flourishing at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal why establishing such a right is important.
“Unless there are teeth to the bill in terms of actual consequences for people who provide these procedures, the incentives to provide them are going to remain because it’s a very lucrative industry,” Hanford explained.
Terry Schilling, the president of the American Principles Project, which helped craft Greene’s bill, echoed that sentiment.
“The Protect Childhood Innocence Act provides the strongest protections for tens of millions of American children against a radical medical establishment that is all too willing to exploit vulnerable children for profit,” Schilling said.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., a co-sponsor of the legislation, told The Daily Signal, “What is being done to children is sick and indefensible,” adding, “This bill stops the abuse and gives victims the right to sue the adults and institutions that permanently harmed them when they were too young to consent.”
Greene’s legislation would help codify the executive order on this topic that President Donald Trump enacted during his first month in office.
“The Trump administration has made great strides in protecting children, and lawmakers now have the chance to bury one of the most shameful—not to mention profitable—cases of child abuse in human history: They must take it,” Schilling contended.
Mary Rice Hasson, the director of the Person and Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, emphasized to The Daily Signal the need for legislation like Greene’s in general.
“Thousands of American adolescents have been subjected to unethical sex-rejecting interventions by a sham medical industry—the gender industry—which promised the impossible and exploited pain for profit,” Hasson said.
“So-called gender transition is a promise that never delivers because no one can change sex. Instead, vulnerable kids suffer lifelong harm, disfigurement, and disability. Minors who have been harmed by these interventions deserve the right to bring civil actions against those responsible,” she concluded.
House Republicans may also consider the Do No Harm in Medicaid Act, which would prohibit federal Medicaid payments for transgender procedures.
Schilling also supports that legislation, telling The Daily Signal, it “will close the loopholes and put a stop to the political games Democrats have used to force taxpayers to pay for irreversible sex changes for children.”
“No American family should be at the mercy of radicals in white coats based on their mailing address, and this bill when coupled with the [Protect Childhood Innocence Act] will protect children nationwide,” Schilling concluded.
The Daily Signal reached out to other co-sponsors of Greene’s bill, who provided statements in support of the legislation.
“Children are not political experiments. House Republicans will not allow radical ideology, bureaucratic pressure, or profit-driven interests to inflict irreversible harm on children who are far too young to understand the consequences. The Protect Children’s Innocence Act draws a clear moral line. We must protect kids, empower parents, and reject the dangerous lie that government knows better than families,” Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., said in a statement.
“This legislation codifies President Trump’s executive order banning gender-transition procedures for minors. So-called gender-affirming care should never be performed on minors and not funded by U.S. tax dollars,” Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., told The Daily Signal.
“Vulnerable children should never be subject to irreversible mutilation or chemical castration. I’m proud to support the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which gives victims justice by holding medical professionals and institutions accountable for lifelong harm done under the false guise of ‘gender-affirming care,'” Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., told The Daily Signal.
“I co-sponsored the Protect Children’s Innocence Act because the federal government has a responsibility to protect children from irreversible harm,” Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., said.
“No child should be subjected to genital mutilation or chemical castration for non-medical reasons or ideological agendas. This legislation makes clear that safeguarding minors and upholding basic standards of medical ethics must come before politics,” the New York congresswoman added.
“Children should not be subjected to irreversible medical procedures,” Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., told The Daily Signal in a statement.
“The Protect Children’s Innocence Act is common sense. This bill draws a clear line by holding anyone accountable who knowingly performs these procedures on minors. It puts the focus back on protecting kids, not pushing ideology,” Kustoff added.
Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., stated, “Radical transgender ideology has no place in America. Doctors should not be legally shielded when they inflict irreparable harm on their patients—especially children—by indulging in dangerous delusions that come with permanent, life-altering consequences. It is our highest duty in government to protect the vulnerable, and our laws should reflect that.”
