RIGHT CALL DESPITE HUMZA’S SHAMEFUL LACK OF LEADERSHIP
YESTERDAY we got the welcome news that the Sandyford clinic is to halt the prescription of puberty blockers to children.
The First Minister and the SNP Government had tried to dodge the issue.
The Cass review, published more than a week ago, was highly critical of the treatment of children uncertain about their sexuality and gender identity. It concluded the policy of prescribing puberty-blocking medicines and setting them on a path to major surgery was based on ‘remarkably weak’ evidence.
Its damning verdict was that gender identity services have been letting down vulnerable and distressed children.
In the lead-up to the review, the UK Government put a halt to the use of these untested treatments – the longterm effects of which, shockingly, are unknown – on young children.
The only reasonable response would have been for the SNP Government to adopt the same approach. The fact that the Scottish NHS is devolved doesn’t make the slightest difference to the scientific and clinical findings of the report.
MEDICAL interventions that are, at the very least, experimental and unevidenced do not change character at Gretna. Yet Humza Yousaf and other government ministers have spent weeks attempting to avoid the issue.
The controversy on gender services for children is not new. I have been raising concerns for quite some time.
The SNP had every opportunity to protect children. Ministers are ultimately responsible for Scotland’s health system; Mr Yousaf’s deflections about leaving decisions to clinicians are preposterous.
He and other SNP ministers have a duty of care towards vulnerable young people. Yet for years they have refused to listen to those who have bravely voiced their concerns. Although the Cass report was only published this month, its interim conclusions have been known for almost two years. Yet, despite knowing that they would need to make a decision, the SNP’s pathetic response to its publication was to insist that they would need ‘some time’ to read, analyse and digest it.
People will not forget, or forgive, the SNP’s shocking abdication of responsibility on this subject. I have had the privilege of speaking to families who have had their lives turned upside down because of gender services, and the lack of care their sons and daughters receive. Their bravery has given me the strength to keep going – knowing their voices must be heard. I want to see all those who suffer from distress or confusion over gender or sexuality, especially children, receiving the right psychological support and assessment. Yet I have been called transphobic for taking that view.
Serious medical procedures – which despite the protests of ministers and activists, are not reversible or well-evidenced – should never have been imposed on children, as a host of countries have now concluded. It beggars belief the SNP Government should have disowned all responsibility on such a serious issue.