From LifeSiteNews

By Jonathon Van Maren

The Canadian Medical Association says protecting kids from puberty blockers and surgeries infringes on physicians’ rights – not children’s health.

On May 28, the Canadian Medical Association filed a challenge against the constitutionality of Alberta’s 2024 legislation banning certain sex change surgeries and other “treatments” for children under age 16. 

The CMA is arguing that the ban “violates their Charter right to freedom of conscience,” and claims that: “This is a historic and unprecedented government intrusion into the physician-patient relationship and requires doctors to follow the law rather than clinical guidelines, the needs of patients and their own conscience.”

The CMA does not mention that sex changes for children are “historic and unprecedented,” and that medical bodies around the world are increasingly condemning these practices as an unprecedented scandal. The U.K. has banned puberty blockers for minors after the National Health Service commissioned Dr. Hilary Cass to conduct a sweeping analysis of the available evidence; Finland, Sweden, Argentina, and the United States are all taking similar steps. 

Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP government passed three bills last year, including bans on sex change surgeries for minors under 17 and the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the purpose of gender reassignment or affirmation” for those under 15. The National Post reported in 2023 that hundreds of girls under the age of 18 have received double mastectomies.  

The CMA, which allegedly represents over 75,000 doctors, is “specifically challenging the bill that blocks doctors from prescribing hormone therapy and puberty blockers to children under 16 and bans gender-affirming surgeries for those under 18,” according to the CBC. Without irony, Dr. Jake Donaldson, one of the three doctors behind the challenge, stated that the child protection law places him in a “state of moral crisis.” 

“It is encroaching upon sort of the autonomy of physicians and our ability to provide what we believe is best, and individualized, evidence-based care for patients,” the Calgary-based doctor stated. “It forces me to sort of stand on the sidelines and refuse to provide care to patients who would otherwise, in all likelihood, significantly benefit from it.”  

According to the CBC, Donaldson has “roughly 40 young patients who receive the kinds of treatment the law outlaws, although an exemption clause in the legislation means those patients aren’t being cut off.” According to Donaldson: “From the standpoint of gender-affirming care, what we are able tochild  do in the medical world is help people. There’s good evidence behind what we’re doing, [and] there are guidelines that we follow. Nobody’s making decisions willy-nilly.”

Neither Donaldson nor the CBC mentioned the growing body of evidence that reveals the permanent, irreversible damage caused by these “treatments,” including the impact on brain development, reduction in the density of bones, stunting of growth, risk of barring the user from reaching peak IQ, inhibiting sexual function, thickening of the blood, heightening the risk of heart attack by up to five times, creation of a higher risk of blood clots and cancer, and vaginal atrophy, as well as the potential for lifelong sterility. 

“It’s not unprecedented for the CMA to get involved in legal matters, but it was unprecedented for a bill in Canada to restrict the ability for physicians to offer advice to patients,” said Dr. Joss Reimer, president of the CMA. 

Heather Jenkins, press secretary for Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery, stated by email that “Alberta’s government will vigorously defend our position in court,” and that the law protects children from making “irreversible decisions.” 

LGBT activist groups Egale Canada and the Skipping Stone Foundation, as well as five Alberta families, have already launched Charter challenges against the three bills, and filed for an injunction. The hearing for the injunction took place in March, but there is no ruling as yet. 

Premier Danielle Smith has said she will use the Charter’s notwithstanding clause “as a last resort” to ensure her protective legislation is implemented. 

Jonathon Van Maren

Jonathon’s writings have been translated into more than six languages and in addition to LifeSiteNews, has been published in the National Post, National Review, First Things, The Federalist, The American Conservative, The Stream, the Jewish Independent, the Hamilton Spectator, Reformed Perspective Magazine, and LifeNews, among others. He is a contributing editor to The European Conservative.

His insights have been featured on CTV, Global News, and the CBC, as well as over twenty radio stations. He regularly speaks on a variety of social issues at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

He is the author of The Culture War, Seeing is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of Abortion, Patriots: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Pro-Life Movement, Prairie Lion: The Life and Times of Ted Byfield, and co-author of A Guide to Discussing Assisted Suicide with Blaise Alleyne.

Jonathon serves as the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.