Bill 17, the Bill to Push Trans Healthcare Services to Youth

A “Gender Affirming Health Care Advisory Committee Act” – Bill 17 – was introduced in Ontario in October, 2021 by NDP MPP Suze Morrison. 

Bill 17 should really concern you.

It seeks to establish a committee to promote gender affirming health care, including greater access and enhanced insurance coverage for surgical procedures and non-surgical care related to gender transition.

Parents should be very alarmed because if this Bill passes, it will make it all that much easier for children to start the process to change their genders. This Bill could also make it easier for experts to refer children for care—with or without parental consent! Some parents are already being kept in the dark by school authorities, when their children have begun to socially transition at school.

The bill requests that the majority of the members of the committee are to be members of the LGBTQ community. It also provides a list of who should be consulted with this Bill, and guess what? Parents are not even listed. In fact, the word “parent” isn’t even mentioned once in the Bill.

But can MPP Morrison truthfully say that science supports the gender affirmative approach?

If passed, Ontario would be bucking the trend in other jurisdictions such as Sweden, which in recent years has INCREASED its restrictions on minors transitioning by preventing access to surgery for minors and most recently banning puberty blockers for minors not enrolled in clinical studies. This was prompted by a sharp drop-off in doctor referrals to Swedish gender clinics due to doubts that fast-tracking children to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones were the best way to treat gender dysphoria. A preliminary report commissioned by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare has concluded that since a high percentage of dysphoric children suffer from co-morbidities such as depression, anxiety and self-harm behaviours that may require lifelong treatment, proper treatment for dysphoric children needs to allow comprehensive counselling for these conditions.

An approach to the treatment of gender dysphoria which allows time for thorough mental health evaluation is known as "watchful waiting."

When schools push gender transition it is the students who pay the price.

Sometimes they pay the ultimate price.

In 2020 a California mother named Abigail Martinez filed a civil lawsuit against LA County and its Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS), asserting that the government was responsible for the death of her child, Yaeli Martinez, later known as Andrew.  

Her public school and an LGBTQ group encouraged Yaeli to take cross sex hormones and undergo sex change surgery, while failing to properly treat her severe depression. 

An older trans student apparently coached Yaeli on how to convince social workers to put her into foster care, so that the state would pay for her gender reassignment. 

After a failed suicide attempt, Yaeli was placed into foster care and began going by the name of Andrew.

Tragically, though Abigail advised social workers that her child needed mental health supports rather than counselling about how to turn into a boy, Andrew committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train.

Parents are now beginning to fight back with legal actions. A federal suit is being brought against a school in Florida by a parent who alleges that his child's school held secret meetings with his daughter about her gender identity and did not tell them until after her suicide attempt. State legislators there are debating a new bill called the Parental Rights in Education Bill, which would prohibit schools from concealing such conversations with children and also make schools liable if these issues come up in class. 

A California mother has retaliated against two teachers who convinced her seventh-grade daughter to live as a boy with a similar suit against them and the local school board.

Other US states are also trying to put brakes on the rush toward gender affirmative medicine. In deference to a report from Attorney General Ken Paxton that labelled some forms of gender affirmative therapy as "child abuse," Texas Governor George Abbot recently instructed the state's child welfare agency to consider accounts from doctors, nurses and teachers of children receiving gender affirmative care to be grounds for an investigation of child abuse.

Bill 17 passed first and second readings within 24 hours, and was then referred to the Standing Committee on Social Policy. If only the government could work this quickly on all matters!

It's up to us to reach out to the members of the Standing Committee on Social Policy and all MPPs and tell them the stories of how ill-advised advice from activist teachers and doctors is upending countless lives of children.

We simply must convince them of the catastrophic results Bill 67 would have on children!

Promoting “gender reassignment” counselling, and making treatments and surgical procedures more easily accessible through legislation and promotion in schools in Ontario will only result in more tragedies like the few mentioned here.

Trans regret is very real, and has already affected too many real people and their families. To read a story on a Canadian group that was founded to speak for Canadian detransitioners, please CLICK HERE.

 The solution for adolescent gender confusion is a “watch and wait” approach.

The child abuse of hormone treatment and surgical mutilation that is hidden behind the “gender affirmation”, the euphemism of choice for radical gender ideologues, has no business in Ontario or in Canada.

Please bring these stories to the attention of your MPPs! Demand that they oppose Bill 17 – the “Gender Affirming Health Care Advisory Committee Act.”

We simply must convince them of the catastrophic results Bill 67 would have on children!

In moving this bill along MPPs are out of step with the majority of Canadians who believe that watchful waiting should be equally offered to gender dysphoric kids. In a recent Nanos poll on Canadian attitudes toward gender-affirmative healthcare, a majority of Canadians- 72% - said they thought healthcare providers should provide information on a range of counselling options to minors, including the “watchful waiting” option, and not solely the gender-affirmative approach.  

ACTION ITEM:

Let’s contact Ontario legislators as soon as possible and tell them that this bill could have tragic consequences on countless young people!

1. If you live in Ontario please contact your MPP and ask them to oppose Bill 17 because it would allow the continued hijacking of healthcare by trans groups with the end goal of making children’s access to gender affirmative healthcare easier. Explain that you think that the health care system in Ontario should not promote the gender affirmative approach over the watchful waiting approach as the science on the value of gender affirmative care is still highly unsettled.

2. Find your MPP’s contact information by clicking this link and scrolling down to the bottom of the page to the “Find My MPP” box.

3. Please also cc. the Conservative MPP and Minister of Health, Christine Elliott: [email protected]

4. Contact the members of the Standing Committee on Social Policy!

• Ask them to inform themselves about the dangerous agenda behind Bill 17.
  
• Member contact info can be found here.
  
• Email the members as a block:
  [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

5. Write to us at [email protected] and let us know you contacted your MPP.