November 7, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – State legislators have responded to the national outcry over the mom seeking a gender “transition” for her seven-year-old, promising to introduce legislation to ban puberty blockers for minors.

Legislators in Georgia, Kentucky, and Texas have proposed legislation that would prevent medical gender “transitions” for minors.

Georgia State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart (R-36) is drafting a bill that would make it a felony for medical providers to facilitate a medical “transition,” for example, by prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

Ehrhart noted that these children are being given drugs with lifelong effects at an age when the government has deemed them too young to smoke, drink, or make other semi-permanent decisions such as getting a tattoo.

“We’re talking about children that can’t get a tattoo or smoke a cigar or a cigarette in the state of Georgia, but can be castrated and get sterilized,” Ehrhart told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In 2018, Ehrhart defeated Democrat Jen Slipakoff, who is raising her son as “transgender” because at two years old he showed an interest in pink pajamas and cupcakes.

In Kentucky, Rep. Savannah Maddox (R-61) says she has begun drafting a bill to prevent medical “transitions.”

Maddox’s bill would “protect children under the age of 18 from gender reassignment surgery or from receiving drug treatments designed to alter their natal gender.”

On Facebook, Maddox pointed out that children’s brains aren’t developed enough to understand the lifelong decision they are making about their “gender.”

“I am a strong advocate for parent's rights- but it is not the right of a parent to permanently alter a child's gender or identity, even when based upon certain behaviors or the perceptions of a child's mind which has not yet had time to fully develop,” Maddox wrote.

The CDC cites “changes in brain development that may have life-long effects” as a reason for establishing a minimum drinking age of 21. According to neuroscientists, the brain doesn’t finish developing until somewhere around 25 years old. Of note, the prefrontal cortex – the portion of the brain responsible for decision making, planning, and risk analysis – does not fully develop until 18 to 20 years of age.

Texas Rep. Matt Krause (R-93) announced via Twitter that he will introduce legislation to prohibit the use of puberty blockers for children under 18.

Absent a special session between now & the the 87th Session, I will introduce legislation that prohibits the use of puberty blockers in these situations for children under 18. We missed our opportunity to do so in the 86th Session. We won’t miss the next one. #savejamesyounger https://t.co/BpbGDPwujZ — Matt Krause (@RepMattKrause) October 24, 2019

Dr. Stephen Levine, one of the pioneers in transgender research, testified during the James Younger trial that “an ideal outcome of trans youth is to desist” back to the child’s real sex, due to the psychological and social difficulties faced by transgender individuals. Dr. Levine testified that the medical community views the transgender population as an at-risk population.

Dr. Levine was the chair for the fifth edition of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association Standards of Care, but left the organization due to its over politicization.

Dr. Levine emphasized the fact that over 85 percent of children experiencing gender identity issues will desist, or return to identifying with their natal gender, if they are acknowledged, but not socially affirmed in their gender identity issue.

A widely cited study conducted in Sweden, one of the most liberal and pro-LGBT countries in the world, followed transgender individuals who underwent sex “reassignement” surgery over 30 years. It found that the suicide rate was 19 times higher for transgender individuals who “transitioned” versus the standard population.

Dr. Michelle Cretella, Executive Director for the American College of Pediatricians (not to be confused with the left-wing American Academy of Pediatrics), told LifeSiteNews that it is important for physicians to “first, do no harm.”

“Many of us hope that this case will usher in a return to sanity, science, and medical ethics rooted in ‘first, do no harm.’”

Dr. Cretella has spoken out repeatedly about the harms of subjecting children to transgender drugs and procedures.

Dr. Andre Van Mol, the co-chair of the American College of Pediatricians’ Committee on Adolescent Sexuality, stressed that gender dysphoria is a “mental health diagnosis” and “transgenderism” is “an overarching ideology.”

“Any thought of ‘gender affirmation therapy’ for a minor is entirely experimental,” Van Mol told LifeSiteNews.