London, July 30, 2024, The Europe Today: The High Court in London has upheld a ban on prescribing puberty-blocking drugs to children, a measure enacted in March by the previous British government and challenged by transgender activists.
The Conservative government had restricted the National Health Service (NHS) from using puberty blockers outside of clinical trials and banned private suppliers from prescribing them. The NHS had already ceased prescribing these drugs last year, citing insufficient evidence regarding their benefits and harms.
In a ruling on Monday, Justice Beverley Lang stated that gender care is an area of “remarkably weak evidence” and noted that young people have been caught up in a “stormy social discourse.” She referenced a review commissioned by the NHS, which influenced the court’s decision.
Justice Lang described the emergency procedure used to enact the ban as “rational,” emphasizing that it was necessary to “avoid serious danger to the health” of children during the six-month period required for regular consultations.
TransActual, the group that challenged the ban on behalf of an unnamed minor, argued that the government had imposed the restriction first and then sought ways to justify it.
“We are seriously concerned about the safety and welfare of young trans people in the UK,” stated Chay Brown, TransActual’s healthcare director. “Over the last few years, they have come to view the UK medical establishment as paying lip service to their needs and all too happy to weaponize their very existence in pursuit of a now-discredited culture war.”
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary in the current Labour government, affirmed that the NHS review found “insufficient evidence that puberty blockers are safe and effective for children with gender dysphoria and gender incongruence.”
“The government must act cautiously and with care when it comes to vulnerable youth,” said Streeting. He added that he is working with the NHS to “improve children’s gender identity services” and establish clinical trials to gather evidence on puberty blockers.
Author J.K. Rowling, a noted critic of transgender ideology, commented on the ruling: “We seem, at last, to be moving back to treatment for vulnerable youth based on evidence-based medicine, as opposed to the unevidenced claims of ideological lobby groups.”
The decision marks a significant development in the ongoing debate over transgender healthcare and the use of puberty blockers for minors in the UK.
