Republican Rep. Brian Lohse was one of two Republicans in the House Judiciary Committee who voted against a bill that would protect minors from sex-change treatments and procedures in Iowa. It’s a startling vote in that it allows children to remain guinea pigs for a medically mutilating experiment that lacks any long-term studies showing any actual benefits.
In fact, it seems studies show more risk — much more risk — for kids who undergo sex-change treatments and procedures.
Lohse explained his vote in his newsletter, which we will share in full so as not to take anything out of context:
House Study Bill 214 prohibits the use of hormone therapy and puberty blockers while also ending irreversible genital surgeries on children (minors under age 18) in our state.
This may be one of the most controversial bills we have done all year. The bill passed out of the Judiciary Committee as the last bill of Funnel Week at about 1:30 am on Friday morning.
I want to take a moment to explain my vote against this bill. The past 2 years, we have emphasized the power of the parent and protecting the rights of the parent to make decisions on behalf of their children.
I want to make it clear that I do not believe that putting a child on a irreversible path involving puberty blockers and sex change surgeries is what a parent should do. Children are children. They change their minds constantly. I would never make this decision for my child and I personally feel that parents who do are making a serious decision that will be detrimental to their child. But. If we are going to be true to what we believe in, that parents get to make decisions for their children, we must let them make what we even believe may be seriously bad ones.
Because the bill does not allow for parents to make that decision, I could not vote for it.
Lohse correctly points out that Republicans have emphasized the power of parents and protecting parental rights the last few years. But nobody has advocated for the power of parents to abuse their children. Nobody has advocated the power of parents to decide their son should be their daughter and vice versa.
Comparing the idea that kids should be able to undergo surgery that changes their sex to the idea that parents should have some of the money intended for their child’s education is ludacris. It’s absurd.
Here was the kicker in Lohse’s explanation:
“If we are going to be true to what we believe in, that parents get to make decisions for their children, we must let them make what we even believe may be seriously bad ones.”
First things first, Lohse can’t claim that ground because he voted against parental choice in education on Education Savings Accounts. So he hasn’t been “true to what we believe” already.
Second, parents aren’t allowed to make decisions for their children all the time. Parents can’t decide their kid can do all kinds of things.
It’s called boundaries. Every civilized society has them. Every civilized society needs them.
Turning a little girl into a boy or a boy into a little girl isn’t a “parental right” or “parental choice.” It’s bad medicine. It’s dangerous. It’s untested. It’s abuse.
Parents don’t have the right to abuse their children.
This shouldn’t be hard to understand.
