A recent article pointed out that soaring malpractice insurance premiums for clinics that provide puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures to minors are becoming an obstacle to those who profit from inflicting irreparable harm on struggling adolescents under the misleading name of “gender-affirming care.” This is welcome news to those of us old enough to remember a time when passing a high school anatomy class required mastering the concept that men are post-pubescent homo sapiens with XY chromosomes and women are those with XX chromosomes.
Since 1776, when Adam Smith first introduced the “invisible hand” of economics in his Wealth of Nations, generation after generation has witnessed its effect on human behavior. If basic biology, the Hippocratic oath, or the theological and natural law viewpoint of mankind as image-bearers of God won’t put an end to doctors compounding the suffering of vulnerable teens by turning them into life-long patients, perhaps economic self-interest will.
Insurers don’t make malpractice premium decisions in a vacuum. Nations in Western Europe and Scandinavia that were once at the forefront of so-called “gender transitions” have severely restricted the practice for minors. Here in the U.S., state lawmakers have begun passing legislation to protect minors from irreversible, life-altering procedures until legal adulthood, despite opposition from the federal government. Attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom are assisting the state of Alabama in defending its commonsense restrictions on these harmful procedures and won a victory at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit last year.
Some states like Arkansas have lengthened the statute of limitations on malpractice suits
