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ATLANTA – State Representative Ginny Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) today announced that she will introduce the Vulnerable Child Protection Act during the 2020 legislative session. This legislation would make it a felony to perform radical surgery on, or administer drugs to, a minor child for the purpose of attempting to change a minor’s gender.
“This form of child abuse is becoming a serious problem in Georgia and is evolving into a national crisis,” said Rep. Ehrhart. “We are talking about children who have not reached the legal age of consent yet are being subjected to life-altering, irreversible surgeries and drug treatments that render them sterile and permanently disfigured. The psychological damage this does to innocent children must come to an end. This legislation makes such abusive actions criminal.”
The Vulnerable Child Protection Act would make it a felony to perform certain medical procedures that attempt to change a minor’s gender, including sterilization, mastectomy, vasectomy, castration and other forms of genital mutilation. The legislation would also prohibit the administration of medications to minors that may cause infertility, including puberty-blocking drugs to stop or delay normal puberty and cross-sex hormone therapy (administering testosterone to female children and estrogen to male children). The removal of otherwise healthy or non-diseased body parts from minors would also be prohibited.
“The Vulnerable Child Protection Act is not an attempt to infringe on the rights of adults to make lifestyle choices for themselves,” added Rep. Ehrhart. “This is about children who are being abused by adults. The sterilization and castration of children has no place in a civilized society.”
“This bill is of the utmost importance, because it will put a stop to the process of trying to convert a child’s physical appearance to that of the opposite sex, resulting in irreversible, medically harmful changes,” said Dr. Van Meter, an Atlanta-based pediatric endocrinologist. “There is no valid scientific long-term evidence that this is either safe or effective, while there is ample evidence that it is harmful. Children should be protected from medical experimentation based on wishful social theory. These children are suffering from a psychological condition without biologic basis. Using the bludgeon of threatened suicide as justification is first of all cruel, and secondly, not supported by valid published studies.”
For more information on the Vulnerable Child Protection Act, please contact Rep. Ehrhart’s Capitol office at 404-656-0152 or Ginny.Ehrhart@house.ga.gov.
Representative Ginny Ehrhart represents the citizens of District 36, which includes portions of Cobb County. She was elected to the House of Representatives in 2018 and currently serves on the Higher Education, Information and Audits and Regulated Industries committees.