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View our privacy policyThe health secretary must listen to the trans community, medical experts and many of his own party on the dangers of removing puberty blockers.
Content warning: suicide
MPs from across the house came out over the weekend in support of making sure puberty blockers are available for those who need them, following our hearing in the High Court on Friday challenging the Tory ban on this vital medicine.
The new health secretary, Wes Streeting, not only defended his predecessor’s ban in court but also doubled down, saying he wanted to make it permanent. But MPs including Zarah Sultana, Stella Creasy, Siân Berry and Clive Lewis challenged Streeting’s position.
Sultana cited Labour’s own manifesto commitment to “remove indignities for trans people”, a commitment that means “ending the Tories’ ban on puberty blockers”. And Lewis said he’d met young people who told him that using puberty blockers “probably saved their life”.
Faced with the voices raised in support of this crucial medical intervention both from within his own party and without, Streeting put out a Twitter thread on Sunday to justify his position, saying “children’s healthcare must always be led by evidence”.
It’s reassuring to hear that the health secretary wants to make decisions about vulnerable people’s healthcare based on the evidence. But that’s exactly what his predecessor failed to do when she rushed the ban through before the election. As we set out in the High Court on Friday, Victoria Atkins made her decision on the ban in spite of evidence presented to her by NHS England that the ban would impact an “extremely vulnerable group” and give rise to an increased risk of self-harm and suicide.
Atkins and now Streeting have both cited the Cass review, which is itself controversial, as the “evidence” that the ban should be in place, but even the Cass review did not recommend a ban on puberty blockers “whether on safety grounds or any other grounds” and contemplates continued use of puberty blockers to treat trans people.
Streeting could choose to turn the tide on the culture wars and take action based on internationally recognised standards of medical care for young trans people, instead of continuing the increasing politicisation of trans rights. He could choose to engage with the trans community and specialist trans healthcare professionals, instead of following the lead of an ideologically-driven predecessor who barred officials from consulting any “specialist [organisations] claiming to represent those with [gender dysphoria] and their families/carers”. He could choose to urgently investigate the surge of deaths among those on the NHS waiting list after NHS England introduced earlier restrictions to care for trans youth in 2020, instead of maintaining and extending a ban that puts more lives at risk.
If Labour is serious about its commitment to make sure trans people receive recognition and acceptance, it must start by listening to trans people and the wider medical profession, and lifting this needless ban.