California Attorney General Javier Becerra, Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, is facing an uphill struggle. His lack of experience in the health area and controversial views, which include a refusal as a member of Congress to ban partial-birth abortions, have led Republicans to demand that Biden withdraw his nomination.
But Becerra is not the only Biden nominee for an HHS job that is facing tough scrutiny over radical views. Dr. Rachel Levine, his choice for Assistant Secretary of Health of HHS, has advocated for the administration of puberty blockers to teens.
Levine, who is herself transgender — if confirmed she would be the first transgender member of a presidential cabinet in history — “has given lectures in various settings since at least 2012 on how to perform sex changes and gender conversion therapy on children,” according to The National Pulse.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
According to Levine, children ought to be given the latitude to choose their own gender. Levine has advised adults to “try not to force them one way or other [sic]” and instead to follow the child’s lead.
“For prepubertal children,” Levine said in a 2017 speech at Franklin & Marshall College, “they might present in different ways. They might present at school in the gender they were identified at birth, or they might present as the other gender, or they might be more gender-fluid.” Levine has described children as young as five or six as “knowing” which gender they wanted to be.
The risks of administering puberty blockers to children are severe, according to Dr. Michael K. Laidlaw, an endocrinologist, who cautions that “‘treatment’ with puberty blockers is leading … adolescents to a much higher risk of early osteoporosis and fractures.” His views are echoed by those of fellow endocrinologist Will Malone, who notes, “Humans acquire more than half the bone density they will ever have during their teen years. This is the most critical time for long term bone/skeletal health.”
