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Sotomayor’s Headache: The United Kingdom Upholds Ban on Puberty-Blocking Drugs for Minors

In the aftermath of the contentious Supreme Court arguments in United States v. Skrmetti over state bans on puberty blockers and gender-altering surgeries, the United Kingdom reaffirmed that it finds the risks far outweigh the benefits of such treatments for minors under the currently available scientific evidence. The move by the liberal Labour Party stands in sharp contrast with the portrayal of the Biden Administration and the treatment of the subject by the liberal justices. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was widely criticized for analogizing puberty-blocking drugs to taking aspirin. It appears that doctors in the UK are not ready to tell minors to just “take two puberty blockers and call me in the morning.”

UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting said last week, “Children’s health care must always be evidence-led. The independent expert Commission on Human Medicines found that the current prescribing and care pathway for gender dysphoria and incongruence presents an unacceptable safety risk for children and young people.”

The decision follows the release of the Cass Review, which was raised by the conservative justices as contradicting the factual representations of the Biden Administration, even leading Justice Samuel Alito to suggest that Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and the government might not have fulfilled their duty of candor to the tribunal. He noted that the Cass study found scant evidence that the benefits of transgender treatment are greater than the risks. He then delivered the haymaker: “I wonder if you would like to stand by the statement in your position or if you think it would now be appropriate to modify that and withdraw your statement.”

 

Streeting cited significant doubts about the benefits of puberty blockers while noting the “significant risks” to children.

The government will allow puberty blockers to be administered to children in clinical trials.

It is not clear if the Supreme Court will take “judicial notice” of the new decision, but it can.

In fairness to Sotomayor, she was trying to argue that all treatments have risks in making her aspirin analogy. Yet, the comment was taken as trivializing the alleged harm and trauma raised by many in this debate. These studies clearly show greater risks than those associated with aspirin. However, what the Biden Administration was arguing (and the liberal justices were seemingly supporting) is that states would be barred by the Court from reaching the same conclusion as the UK and other countries. Indeed, Streeting echoed what the states argued to the Supreme Court that the government must  “act with caution and care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people, and follow the expert advice.”

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

95 thoughts on “Sotomayor’s Headache: The United Kingdom Upholds Ban on Puberty-Blocking Drugs for Minors”

  1. Sotomayor is an affirmative action fail…the .right racial profile at the right time ….woefully unqualified and undeserving. She is a juridical stain and a major hindrance. Brown is even worse than clown shoes. She should pop 2 fentanyl and call no one is the morning.

  2. Turley is once again engaging in a discussion that raises significant concerns about integrity and objectivity. It seems that Justice Alito shares a troubling inclination toward disingenuousness in his commentary. The Cass report, which has generated considerable controversy, failed to adhere to established scientific methodologies. Critics have highlighted that its findings were not only selective but also conveniently excluded testimonies from parents and members of the transgender community, thereby presenting an incomplete picture of the issue at hand.

    In a rigorous examination of the report, scientists at Yale have pointed out that its methods and overall approach are fundamentally flawed, further undermining the credibility of its conclusions. The manner in which the report was rushed to publication is particularly alarming, as it coincided with the imminent departure of the conservative government in the UK. This timing raises questions about the motivations behind its swift release.

    Justice Alito’s mention of the Cass report appears to serve a particular purpose: to leverage it as an excuse to claim that “experts” harbor doubts about the subject. However, this interpretation is misleading. The report’s intent seems to be a biased effort to skew the perceptions of other experts rather than providing a balanced view grounded in rigorous data analysis. Thus, it is important to critically assess such reports and the context in which they are presented, as they can significantly influence public opinion and policy decisions.

    This is what Turley and Alito ignore,

    “In April 2024 the four-year, NHS England-commissioned review of the state of pediatric gender medicine was submitted by Hilary Cass. The Cass Review has been fully accepted by the NHS, supported by both of the U.K. major political parties, and broadly embraced by the U.K. clinical community. On July 1, 2024, a 39-page paper titled “An Evidence-Based Critique of the Cass Review” appeared on the Yale Law School website, arguing that the Review was not trustworthy. The paper, written by Meredithe McNamara, and co-authored by some of the most prominent figures in gender medicine activism — including Johanna Olson-Kennedy and Jack Turban — alleged that the Cass Review “repeatedly misuses data and violates its own evidentiary standards,” was “rife with misapplications of the scientific method,” and failed to evaluate the evidence “in a neutral and scientifically valid manner.” The paper asserted that the Cass Review’s recommendation to limit youth transitions to research-only settings is “coercive and unethical,” and advocated that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery should continue to be essential treatment options for youth, as recommended by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s (WPATH) Standards of Care Version 8.

    The claims in this online-only, non-peer-reviewed paper by McNamara et al. attracted significant international attention, in no small measure due to the imprimatur of Yale University, which hosts the so-called “Integrity Project” under whose auspices the paper was posted. Although a disclaimer was eventually added that the work did not represent Yale’s views, the narrative that “Yale debunked the Cass Review” took root in some circles, leading to a surprising decision by the British Medical Association (BMA) UK council, made without consultation with its members, to “publicly critique” the Review.

    In response to growing national and international attention to the McNamara et al. paper, Archives of Disease in Childhood (ADC) — an international pediatric journal from BMJ and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) — published a peer-reviewed analysis scrutinizing the claims in the paper. This newly-published analysis, co-authored by several of the U.K.’s leading clinicians including the past President of RCPCH, concluded that the paper by McNamara et al. is not a credible scientific effort, but rather, an attempt to influence U.S. litigation while masquerading as scientific critique.”

    https://segm.org/Cass_Integrity_Project_Yale#:~:text=The%20paper%2C%20written%20by%20Meredithe,rife%20with%20misapplications%20of%20the

    The Cass review is nothing more than a means to provide cover for those who oppose transgender care and interfere with parents decisions.

    1. Thanks, George–just another Turley deflection away from Trump scandals, like lying about being able to “very quickly” bring grocery prices down “precipitiously”–which got lots of people to vote for him– and the never-ending scandals involving his choices to lead agencies. Turley has to stir the culture wars and get in some digs at non-MAGA Justices so the disciples won’t pay attention to the real scandals.

      3. Gigi, you do know that the PRIMARY driving forces for the results of this election from exit polls were NOT claims by Trump.

        They were FAILURES of the left.

        People did not vote FOR Trump so much as AGAINST Harris/Biden.

        Regardless.

        “You don’t matter anymore”

    2. George:
      (Apologies to all for the length of this. You can scan past the excerpted paragraphs and go toward the bottom)
      George: While nearly the entirety of your comment is lifted, you nonetheless did (accidentally?) include a final paragraph that ‘criticizes the criticism’ of the Cass Report and other lifted information that belittles and discredits McNamara’s reporting.
      Most importantly, George, you left out the very title of your referenced citation: “The Cass Review, the ‘Yale’ Report, and the Importance of Keeping Special Interests at Bay”
      Subtitle: “A new analysis from BMJ’s Archives of Disease in Childhood (ADC) concludes that the McNamara et al. critique of the Cass Review is not a genuine scientific effort, but a politicized attempt to influence outcomes of ongoing U.S. litigation.”

      -And guess who played a big role in the criticism of the Cass Report? Yep, our very own Biden-appointed trans, HHS’ Rachel Levine! (See the final paragraph excerpted, infra.)

      Here’s some of what you left out:

      “After analyzing all three of the Project’s recent efforts to attack evidence appraisal teams, a pattern emerges. The Project [criticizing the Cass Report], led by McNamara and Alstott, identifies specific scientific evidence appraisal efforts or evidence curation deemed threatening to their litigation goals. A rotating group of co-authors, in addition to McNamara and Alstott, co-write lengthy online papers that level attacks on the research teams, accusing them of various research “violations,” “misrepresentations,” and of spreading “scientific misinformation.” The substantiation for such serious allegations is either absent, or based on demonstrably inaccurate assertions that cannot withstand a credible peer-review process; the latter is not a barrier, since the Project does not subject these papers to an external peer-review process…”

      “These lengthy papers, which the [anti-Cass Report] Project calls “white papers,” are then posted on a Yale University web page, which lends them visibility and infuses them with the credibility of an Ivy League educational institution..”.
      “Next — and key to the Project’s litigation-focused strategy — these same papers (or their altered versions) are subsequently introduced into evidence in numerous ongoing lawsuits regarding the practice of youth gender transition in the U.S., where a number of the papers’ co-authors serve as paid expert witnesses…”

      “These papers are also widely disseminated. Recently-unsealed court documents indicate the Integrity Project’s dissemination efforts are aided by WPATH and the office of Rachel Levine at the HHS, with a stated joint goal to “fight relentlessly and aggressively” against state-imposed age restrictions on youth gender transitions, in order “to ensure equal access to care for all”.

      I could go on and on, with other important excerpts and sub-headings, e.g., ”
      “1. McNamara et al.’s paper was written to influence U.S. courts, under the guise of neutral scientific inquiry.”
      “2. McNamara et al.’s paper contains an unusually high number of factual errors.”
      “3. McNamara et al.’s central critique of the Cass Review is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the role and process of ‘independent reviews’ in the United Kingdom.”
      “4. The critique of the York systematic reviews ranges from misrepresenting the rigor of York’s analyses to positioning common research limitations as major research ‘violations.’

      In other words, either lack of reading comprehension, contextual understanding, or perhaps pure chicanery has driven you to compare nothing more than litigation-motivated white papers with a fully-commissioned, PEER-REVIEWED official Report.
      at https://adc.bmj.com/pages/gender-identity-service-series

        1. (((Upstate: Good to see you appear on this site–have been thinking of you and your wife/family and creatures, with all the news of awful weather in the NE! )))

          1. Lin,
            Thank you very much for thinking about me, the Mrs. and critters! The ten inches of snow we got the other night was a surprise but we are used to it. Just have to fire up the snow thrower to clear the drive. No worries!

      2. Lin, there is also an amicus brief in Skrmetti entirely devoted to debunking the McNamara paper.

      3. To me, a dumb old farm boy, my takeaway from the posts of Prof Turley and both George and Lin is that they have reinforced Justice’s Alito’s observation that the administration’s characterization of “overwhelming” evidence in support of the benefits of “gender affirming care” is at best misleading and at worst entirely false. The Solicitor General, Elizabeth Prelogar lost her credibility by being so transparently an advocate, not just for the legal point in question, but for the practice of medically treating and altering physically healthy children for what quite likely is a transient feeling. With this case, in particular, I am struck by the blessings bestowed on this country by the independent judicial system as well as states as centers of independent policies. At times it can be messy but it seems to work in the long term. I hope that the court will allow Tennessee to continue with its regulation. Other states may enact different policies. I will be looking forward to reading the opinions.

      4. Ouch, Lin! You just pummeled Poor George into pulp, and then scraped up the corpus detritus, crammed it into a garbage bag, put it into a cardboard box, and then FedEx’d the package to the garbage dump. Kudos!

      5. Lin,

        You said, “George: While nearly the entirety of your comment is lifted, you nonetheless did (accidentally?) include a final paragraph that ‘criticizes the criticism’ of the Cass Report and other lifted information that belittles and discredits McNamara’s reporting.”

        I bet that he was copying and pasting and went one paragraph, or so, too far.

        ROTFLMAO!!!

      6. “. . . you [George] nonetheless did (accidentally?) include a final paragraph that ‘criticizes the criticism’ of the Cass Report . . .”

        That paragraph is bizarre. Even more so is, as you note: The cited article is a devastating takedown of the “Yale report.”

        Apparently, some can read, but not be bothered to comprehend.

    3. George, you are correct in stating that there is no consensus on gender affirming care. The natural response would be if the benefits are not yet determined maybe we should hold off on the mutilation of the underaged until we know more. Instead your recommended approach is full speed ahead. At one time there were papers that recommended the study of syphilis in black men by giving them syphilis so that they could see if they could cure syphilis. This was an action that was approved by the medical profession at the time. Like with gender affirming care there was a lot of money to be made. Similar gender affirming care studies were conducted in Finland and the results were the same. If you’re an adult and you want to make yourself a eunuch go right ahead but as for me I will not accept that a five year old boy or girl or even a teenager is mature enough to make such a decision. Do you want to be so accepted by society that you are willing to use puberty blockers on innocent children to justify your existence as a transsexual person. We all know your answer to this question because you have clearly stated your response. Due to your position we must come to the conclusion that you believe that any and all sacrifices must be made to reassure you that your condition is normal. Thankfully there are those who loudly reject the young human sacrifices that you propose. Thank you for telling us who you are so that we can respond accordingly through the highest court in the nation. Let’s see, puberty blockers compared to aspirin who could possibly know the difference George?

    4. George, what are you talking about? The Cass Review relied on systematic reviews of the evidence to come to its conclusions. Systematic reviews are the highest standard of evidence. The McNamara paper has been demolished, as you yourself recognise by quoting from the SEGM paper. It is also debunked by an amicus brief by Leor Sapir among others.

      1. Daniel: (I wouldn’t have offered such a lengthy response if “George, -in his usual authoritative manner, had not blatantly stated, “The Cass report, which has generated considerable controversy, failed to adhere to established scientific methodologies,” in his first paragraph, –or ended it with, “The Cass review is nothing more than a means to provide cover for those who oppose transgender care and interfere with parents decisions,” which I am willing to dismiss as misdirected opinion posing as fact.) Thanks for your addition of Sapir’s Brief, which I have not read.)

    5. George – I have no idea if your claims regarding the Cass review are correct.

      Honestly I doubt it.

      Why ? Because those of you on the left consistently lie.
      Any claim – no matter how dubious that supports your ideology – is elevated tot he status of proven science.
      Any claim – no matter how strong that challenges your ideology – is dismissed as bunk.

      The FIRST massive problem you have is that you can not make up your mind about gender dysphoria.

      The left ideology asserts that identity is a choice and a right.

      While at the same time claiming it is immutable – like race.

      Gender can not be both immutable and a choice.

      I and most others are perfectly willing to accept that one can chose their own gender.
      But if that is the case then those who do are NOT entitled to the protections that we afford immutable characteristics.
      We bar discrimination based on immutable characteristics.
      We DO NOT bar discrimination based on choices.

      If gender is a choice – then others can choose not to respect your choice.
      They can even punish your choice.

      The alternative is that gender is immutable – that were the case there would be evidence.
      There is scant evidence of immutability.

    6. Europeans were infected by the woke mind virus significantly before the US.

      This nonsense about Gender Dysphoria swept through Europe years before it hit the US.

      You attack the Cass report – with a collection of dubiously sourced claims, but the Cass report is NOT the only study in Europe (or the US)
      to conclude that so called Gender affirming care is does more harm than good.

      This should not be even slightly surprising.

      The DSM was correct years ago in concluding that gender dysphoria was a mental disorder.

      There is BTW enormous evidence of that. As an example the recent rise in FTM teens directly corresponds to an equally dramatic decline in anerexia and bulimia.

      The symptoms have changed – the underlying problem has not.

      There is also an incredibly strong correlation between FTM teen Trans and teen sexual abuse.

      You attack the Cass study – but numerous other studies have been done – most by the left and while many make bold claims,
      none to date have provided evidence of benefits.

    7. George – you do know that one of the key findings of the Cass report was that all studies on this topic have been of poor quality and did not follow scientific standards.

      The Cass report is NOT a scientific study. It is a survey of all existing scientific studies.

      It is also very odd that Your counter source claims that the “Cass report was an attempt to drive US politics.
      That is an absurd claim. The Cass report was commissioned by the NHS. It was in response to an explosion of purported Gender Dysphoria in the UK.
      It was particularly focused on the FACT that there was something like a 4000% increase in F2M gender dysphoria. without a significant increase in M2F.

      The Cass report itself did NOT engage in significant research. It is a SURVEY of all existing Gender Dysphoria Research – both from the UK and the US.

      When you correctly claim that rigorous scientific methodology was not followed – you are CORRECT. And that is ONE of the conclusions of the Cass report.

      The Cass report found that studies of teen Gender dysphoria in the past decade plus were Badly conducted, Biased and STILL did not produce results supporting the interventions that were advocated.

      The conclusions of the Cass Report – much like the preceding Danish protocol are that advocates for the benefits of drugs and surgery in cases of gender dysmorphia have NOT as of today provided a sound scientific basis for that care.

      That is why increasingly universally in Europe further experimental studies have been allowed to continue, but hormone and surgical interventions have been BLOCKED as not being evidence supported treatment.

    8. Goodness! It is 8:31AM!

      Yeah, who could have guessed – that a study that a study casting doubt on the efficacy of trans treatments for kids, would be trashed by the trans community as a bad study.

      But frankly, I can understand the sentiment. Had the Cass study said that mutilating kids was great, and the best thing since sliced bread, I would be calling it a bad study.

      That is why I tend to make decisions more based on what I see, on what I have learned and my own experiences. To me, simple common sense says that it is heinous to do this Mengele-level stuff to kids. But I also try to listen to others, to see what conclusions they are drawing, and what additional facts they can bring to the argument.

      So, I listen to kids who have de-transitioned, and to people like Dr. Grossman, from whom I presented a video earlier in this thread. And this video, about the fundamental mental illness and depravity of these trans people, and the experts and lawyers who support them. Try listening to this while you are doing housework or something.

    9. As a therapist of many years I have seen many confused young people. Comparing the extreme treatment options for Body Dysphoria and other treatments of teenager concerns seems to obfuscate the real concerns. Adding the remarks indicating the writers’ TDS is also a concern.

    10. “This is what Turley and Alito ignore,”

      [. . .]

      “This newly-published analysis [of the “Yale report”], co-authored by several of the U.K.’s leading clinicians including the past President of RCPCH, concluded that the paper by McNamara et al. is not a credible scientific effort, but rather, an attempt to influence U.S. litigation while masquerading as scientific critique.”

      Do you even read what you copy and paste?

      You just shot yourself in the foot. And the rest of the article you cited is a complete demolition of the “Yale report.”

      In fact you shot yourself in both feet:

      “. . . a discussion that raises significant concerns about integrity and objectivity.”

      “Let’s start with some of the authors’ roles as paid expert witnesses for parties fighting American bans or restrictions on youth gender medicine: McNamara ($400 per hour), Janssen ($400 per hour), Olson-Kennedy ($200 per hour), and Turban ($400 or $250 per hour, depending on the task) have all received money as expert witnesses in cases fighting bans or restrictions of youth gender medicine in American states.” (https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/yales-integrity-project-is-spreading)

  3. I believe that someday we will find out that the source of the Dobbs (abortion) leak was none other than Justice Sotomayor. Remember that the ends justify the means!

  4. FAIR & REASONABLE QUESTION: Would Josef Mengele monkey around with gender transformation ?

  5. Ah the self-proclaimed legal and societal illuminati that is Sotomayor! Glad to know she can help SCOTUS and America steer towards the Rocks when it becomes necessary to scuttle our democracy and trash parental rights! You go girl!

  6. As woke leftist policies fail and fail again, more and more studies will show how harmful “gender affirming care” really is. Sane and normal people are saying the quiet part out loud, “You are a dude in a dress. And stay away from kids.”

    1. Upstate – while the right particularly is fixated on M2F Trans as that poses the greatest societal dangers.
      That is what produces Biological men in women’s sports. It is what deprives actual women of merit based scholarships and awards.
      And worse it results in serious injuries to women.
      This is what results in peodophiles identifying as Trans and perving children.

      the Cass study – and the real crisis in healthcare is more focussed on F2M trans – as this is where the 4000% explosion in transgenderism has occurred.

      There are very few societal problems resulting from F2M trans – mostly a few bad results from dosing women up with lots of testosterone. This has produced bad results like the TN F2N Trans mass murderer – but these are extremely rare occurances.

      The real problem with so called Gender Afirming Care for F2M trans is that the long term impacts on these Women are horrendous.
      These are large scale individual negative consequences NOT consequences to others – such as rising M3F identifying peodphiles or physical harm to real women.

      JK Rowley and numerous other important women did not tarnish their reputations because of “dudes in dresses”

      The willingness of many influential women in this issues is because of the self inflicted harm it is causing to biological females.

  7. Kiss ass policies to satisfy a vocal minority for nothing other than political gain are as about as useful as a broken crutch is to a one leg amputee. When politicians and SCOTUS jurists decide to open a closet door they should keep Fibber McGee’s in mind.

  8. Another comment on yesterday’s topic. Mr Mangione was never a client or enrolled patient of a United Healthcare Plan. Many non-physicians also have begun to note that Mr Mangione also does not seem to walk, move or act like someone with debilitating back pain. Was this another left wing political assassination. Maybe the next thing we will find is his Antifa Card . Also I wonder why his charge has not been increased to 1st degree Murder since this was clearly focused attention on a specific target and human being with the goal of a premeditated attack with murder as the object. That also begins to open us to the possibility that this was not a lone wolf attack and that there might be more in the future.
    Fairly brazen act even for NYC.

    1. There are viral reports of insider trading and that Thompson was supposed to testify against Nancy Pelosi. To the likes of Gigi that is enough evidence to conclude a cause. There are also reports that the viral reporting is untrue, but we know the media has previously frequently lied. So what are we to believe? Nothing until reasonable facts are in.

      But, I note the statement, “Fairly brazen act even for NYC.” From what I experienced that is a true statement, but I think such brazen acts will become more frequent. I am less concerned about the motivations in this case than I am about why the act was so brazen and what is causing responses by some to be elevated to such brazenness.

      1. S. Meyer: you are a perfect example of an archtypical MAGA–you speak of “viral reports of insider trading”—well, what are the “reports”? Where is the proof? Who are the witnesses? Why do you believe there’s a “there” without seeing any facts, and why do you use the “viral reports” without any attribution as to source as a means to criticize me? You are the one who never lists any sources for what you claim are facts.

        1. How unintelligent you are, Gigi. Read what was said, ‘There are viral reports of insider trading and that Thompson was supposed to testify against Nancy Pelosi. To the likes of Gigi that is enough evidence to conclude a cause. There are also reports that the viral reporting is untrue”

        3. Gigi.

          A few days ago Re Van Drew was laughed at and called a nut job over claims of Drones spying on the government in New Jersey.

          Today that is no longer some right wing conspiracy theory and even the MSM is starting to follow it.

          Is there proof this was about Insider Trading by Pelosi ? No.

          Do you honestly have any doubts that Pelosi is not heavily involved in insider trading ?
          And YES, there is already plenty of evidence that Pelosi has profited by using proprietary knowledge that she obtain as a member of congress or speaker of the house to profitably trade.

    2. As you stated yesterday, getting overrides to rejection of coverage by a health plan isnt rocket science. I get almost all of mine overturned, and I deal with some very sick people requiring very expensive medications and interventions: HIV meds and HIV associated Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events

      More to your point, the Left habitually use people to further their agenda, without so much as spending time with the people they allegedly represent, e.g. immigrants, hispanics, blacks, the poor, unemployed, victims of sexual abuse, gays/lesbians, HIV+, trans, etc. These people are self-appointed elites, and their latching onto this United Health Care CEO murder is nefarious. Justice Sotomayor has never told us her personal experience with Trans folk. How many has she met? I’ve met few in clinic…very few, likely because my clinic is for the uninsured. It takes money to go the chosen path of “trans”, largely due to underlying mental illnesses. As I stated a while back, Justice Ketanji Jackson should be prohibited from deliberating on any SCOTUS cases involving Trans issues because she stated she can not define the word “woman” by virtue of not being a biologist. So she is either unqualified as a Justice for Trans issues or she lied during her Senate confirmation hearing. Republicans should impeach her from SCOTUS for perjury, if found guilty

      Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of the United Health Care CEO, had the financial means to get any medical procedure available via cash, regardless of health plan machinations. Prior authorizations or “lack of coverage” do not apply to wealthy people like him. Like Sotoymayor and “Trans” people, Elizabeth Warren, the Left and it appears millions of Americans are feigning victimization by health plans.

      Americans Point Out That UnitedHealthcare Tried to Kill Them First
      https://www.yahoo.com/news/americans-point-unitedhealthcare-tried-kill-150354365.html

      Drive health plans out of business by leading healthy lives. The health insurance companies would throw money at Americans to entice them to enrol in their plans since, as healthy and fit individuals, they would rarely need them

      Adipose Tissue Distribution, Inflammation and Its Metabolic Consequences, Including Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease

      Recent epidemiological evidence has shown that 85% of type 2 diabetic adults are also obese (4), and it has been projected that more than 300 million people worldwide will have T2D as a consequence of obesity by 2025 (5). …. Furthermore, both obesity and T2DM increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), increasing morbidity and mortality by greater than 2-fold (7–10).

      Chait A, den Hartigh LJ. Adipose Tissue Distribution, Inflammation and Its Metabolic Consequences, Including Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2020 Feb 25;7:22. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2020.00022.

      1. “Drive health plans out of business by leading healthy lives. The health insurance companies would throw money at Americans to entice them to enrol in their plans since, as healthy and fit individuals, they would rarely need them”

        There are two high cost times in everyone’s lifetime. Birth and the end of life. Neither of these are avoidable.

      2. I agree with you that the CEO killer is not a victim of medical insurance denial. He is the product of the Ivy League university indoctrination culture. The same one that leads students to protest in favor of terrorism. He just happened to take it to the limit.

        I received a communication from my congresswoman today. She is left of left. She used the term “lived experience” in her promise to fight the President Elect. The same term the CEO killer used in his rant.

        When I see or hear buzz words, it reminds me that cults make use of buzz words and jargon when radicalizing their followers.

        In one sense of the word, cult is a derivative of culture. This happened to our daughter when we sent her off to a large university. Her political and world views changed drastically. Fortunately, she graduated long before the deeply “off the rails thinking” was normalized, though she drank the Kool-Aid.

        I don’t mind a person taking a different view than me, I do mind when the person mindlessly follows the given narrative and issue of the week without giving consideration to another perspective.

  9. It is a surprise to see a Justice of the Supreme Court take such a “narrative stance” on supporting life changing procedures without a thorough knowledge. But this is the time where the narrative is king, no further thinking is needed and moreover is forbidden. The efficacy of puberty blockers has become the latest “settled science” without serious scientific analysis. In making her aspirin analogy, she demonstrated quite a profound ignorance.

  10. There is no such thing as “little trans kids.” Nor, trans adults for that matter. I was watching Megyn Kelly the other day, and she showed this study, which has NOT been reported on by NYT or WSJ. From Stanford, no less – there are graphs and charts, too!

    “But researchers at Stanford recently used artificial-intelligence methods to examine brain activity in roughly 1,500 young adults 20 to 35 years of age. Neuroscientists have known for many years that every human brain is characterized by a “fingerprint” of brain activity at rest, unique to that individual. The Stanford neuroscientists used big-data artificial intelligence techniques to determine the fingerprint of every one of those 1,500 young adults and then compared females with males. Did females differ from males? Was there overlap? The results were astonishing.

    As you can see, there wasn’t a continuum: the female fingerprints of brain activity were quite different from the male fingerprints of resting brain activity, with no overlap. These findings strongly suggest that what’s going on in a woman’s brain at rest is significantly different from what’s going on in a man’s brain at rest.

    Just as remarkably, the Stanford team mapped fMRI patterns of connectivity onto cognitive functions such as intelligence. They found particular patterns of connectivity within male brains that accurately predicted cognitive functions such as intelligence. However, that male model had no predictive power for cognitive functions in women.

    Conversely, they found particular patterns of connectivity within female brains that accurately predicted cognitive functions such as intelligence among women. However, that female model had no predictive power for cognitive functions in men.

    These findings strongly suggest that the determinants of cognitive functions in male brains are profoundly different from the determinants of cognitive functions in female brains.

    I have to admit that I was really surprised by these results. I have been writing about these topics for more than 20 years. In the first edition of my book Why Gender Matters, published by Doubleday in 2005, I devoted a chapter to kids who are psychologically “gender-atypical.” I suggested that these kids are somewhere in between male and female. But the Stanford study provides little support for that claim. I am hopeful that the researchers will do follow-up studies specifically looking at individuals who are gender-nonconforming, gender-atypical, and who have gender dysphoria, to see whether and how those characteristics influence these findings.

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sax-on-sex/202405/ai-finds-astonishing-malefemale-differences-in-human-brain

    1. Gender dysphoria is a mental illness. These people need psychiatric counseling, not mutilation or hormones. One simply cannot change their DNA.

  12. The bigger issue here is do citizens want a government “Nanny State” – a politician running for short-term elected office to take rights away from parents and citizens?

    Would a petty politician care more about your family than the parents or adults?

    If you support the European “Nanny State” model, should they choose your most personal choices, like pregnancy, child raising, censorship or your gun rights? Are adult citizens grown up enough to make those choices or should a politician (with no skin in the game) make those choices for you?

    1. We do not allow minors to make other decisions of import because we know they lack maturity of judgement, so why would we allow them this decision? It all boils down to whether the parents can make a sane decision for a minor and if a parent is that misguided we would remove the child from that home if they were endangering that child for any other reason; not to deny anyone “rights” that were not specifically denoted I. The constitution, but for the welfare of the minor. Which is more important, those indeterminate rights or the safety and welfare of the minor. I agree that this should be a state’s decision, unfortunately, there are states such as NY, CA, MA, that have gone beyond reasonable decision making.

  13. I believe with ample evidence over many years that many on the left devalue human life. I start with their embrace of abortion most particularly in the later terms with no empathy for the life that is lost. In recent days, the reaction from many on the left to the assassination of the healthcare CEO. The antisemitism that arose in response to the Oct 7 massacre of innocents in Israel is another sign. The Biden administration totally ignored the human toll both to the migrants they invited into the nation and the impact on the country as well. Many lives on both sides have been lost with nary a word of concern or sympathy from the left. The callousness displayed in the way Afghanistan was abandoned stranding 1000s to the tender mercies of the Taliban. Now they advocate for putting young children at risk to advance their political goals. Where will it stop?

    1. Define “later term abortions.” Abortion after the fetus attains viability is against the law in every state.

      Oh, and mind your own damn business.

      1. Wally, do you really think that abortion after viability is illegal in CA, NY, MA, IL and NJ? If so, please try reading a little more closely or do some work on your comprehension.

      2. And just who is minding the “business” of that separate, (singularly different DNA from the mother) individual who is about to be murdered for the simple convenience of that unfit mother. It is NOT a matter of a private decision between a woman and her doctor, there is another, a third human, who needs to have an advocate for his/her life. So no, I will not mind my own business until there is an appointed advocate for that third person.

    2. I like her, too! She did a great interview with Jordan Peterson. I listen to podcasts while cleaning cat pans, cooking, and tidying up the house – Here is one she did with Triggernometry:

  15. This action by the UK Labor party is very welcome. I was concerned that they might be as crazy as our leftists but at least in this case, they were not. Gender affirming care (which is an outright lie even with its label) continues to take it on the chin in Europe. This is one advantage to having a national health plan. There are pluses and minuses to national health plans but the plus is you get all the statistics generated by your plan and can make valid judgements, as a rule. In the UK the CASS report was approximately a 4 year study that knocked the props out from the gender changing industrial complex and its findings have quickly moved through the rest of Europe. These are populations that are most like us in the world and the leftist gender industrial complex needs to pay heed to these results, pull in their horns and return to sanity. If they don’t then the market will get them .
    The Plaintiff law organizations are always looking for new horizons and ambulances to chase. All we need is 2-3 large malpractice suits against the gender affirmers and their house of cards will start to collapse. I hope for that day.
    We talked a lot yesterday in this column about shooting insurance executives and the cost of health care. This is one of the major costs to the health care system and it basically takes healthy people and makes them sick. Not exactly what the Hippocratic Oath demands that we do.
    Gender Dysphoria Disorders are best treated with Psychiatry, Psychology, Counseling, time and going through puberty. Not puberty blockers and destructive surgery.
    The lie that has pushed all this is fear of suicide and parents are pushed by this system into thinking that their troubled child risks virtually imminent suicide if they don’t proceed with this quackery. They use that fear to generate their profits and their malpractice.
    Again this is not what medicine is all about.
    First-Do No Harm!. A very simple concept but nonetheless true.

  16. The trans lobby continues to lie about the science, but it’s understandable as there are plenty of woke doctors and scientists producing bogus studies and statements that are counter-factual and just plain pro-trans propaganda.

  17. I think too much is being made of this, especially the comment by Justice Sotomayor. It’s akin to how the media misstated Trump’s comment about there being good people on both sides of the issue. Comments like this and that of Sotomayor can easily be rephrased or re-contexed to mean other things – things that were not intended. Sotomayor stated that all drugs have side effects; she was not comparing aspirin to puberty blockers except insofar as both have side effects. I’m no fan of Sotomayor or any of the other liberal justices, but nail them for their biased legal interpretations, not some idle comment. The side effects of aspirin can be and are deadly in some cases (check out Reye’s syndrome in children). So, too, the use of puberty-blocking drugs can prove deadly when teens grow out of their experimental psychosis and want to return to normal and find that they cannot reverse the consequences of their mistakes.

    1. I think minors should be protected by the state from puberty-blocking drugs except in extreme cases (cases I can’t imagine at present) but I agree with you on Sotomayor’s comment. I’m not a lawyer so I look to Professor Turley for explanations of fine points on legal issues.

    2. So on target! I truly get sick of the media taking a random, possibly ill-conceived comment and making it into a cause célèbre!

      1. Oh good grief. Sotomayor’s question belies an ignorance that is just impossible to ignore. Yes, aspirin has side effects–they are very rare, and aspirin is taken all the time and has been around for a century. Puberty blockers, by design, permanently alter the development trajectory of a physically healthy child.

  18. Sotomayor should take her own words for her puberty headache, take 2 aspirins. If the current Far Left UK gov’t/courts say NO, then its a huge problem and simply the US Court should say NO – 9 to zip to the Far Left Radical Groups and the Biden Admin.

  20. The three Leftists on the Court are increasingly exposed as culture warriors, for a rapidly dying culture, and not jurists.

    1. Wise, to bolster your point that the three liberal Justices are not true jurists one needs to just look at their decisions and dissents and try to find even one case where they go against perceived liberal dogma, then check out how often the 6 conservatives on the Court will vote against the conservative argument because it’s logic cannot be supported by the Constitution.

      1. “The current inverted mutation of liberalism is all about constricting economic and personal rights and forcing individuals into collective boxes where their individuality is subsumed into an easily exploited and manipulated conformist whole. Want to test out this hypothesis? Go up to some self-described liberal or progressive in your life and see if you can find one iota of deviation from any of the approved liberal dogma. Good luck. You won’t find a smidgeon of nonconformity. You won’t detect a molecule of dissent. These people are the Borg, if the Borg worked in a giant space coffee house, had Bernie stickers on their spaceships, and could not do a push-up. You can’t reason with them – appealing to reason is futile.” -Kurt Schlichter

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