Healthcare

OH Gov issues ’emergency’ order banning child gender-transition surgeries

Published

11 months ago

January 5, 2024

Republican Ohio governor Mike DeWine issued an “emergency” executive order Friday banning child gender-transition surgeries. The emergency order, however, is a less broad mandate after receiving intense backlash for vetoing a bill last week.

The original bill, dubbed the SAFE Act, prohibited physicians from prescribing cross-sex hormones or puberty-blocking medicine to kids. It also banned men in women’s sports, offering a legal recourse to students forced to play against the opposite sex.

The new executive order would bar physicians from performing gender-transition surgeries, such as mastectomies and hysterectomies, on kids in Ohio’s hospitals and health-care facilities.

“A week has gone by, and I still feel just as firmly as I did that day,” DeWine said at a press conference Friday, defending his decision to veto the broader ban. “I believe the parents, not the government, should be making these crucial decisions for their children.”

Former president Trump wrote on TRUTH Social that DeWine had “fallen to the Radical Left.” “What was he thinking,” Trump said. “The bill would have stopped child mutilation, and prevented men from playing in women’s sports. Legislature will hopefully overturn. Do it FAST!!”

National Review reports DeWine’s initial justification was that the decision to give a child life-altering, potentially sterilizing drugs and procedures should be left up to the child’s parents and doctors. DeWine said at a press conference that follow-up rules would be coming regarding the surgeries for minors, saying, “I truly believe that we can address a number of goals in House Bill 68 by administrative rules that will have likely a better chance of surviving judicial review and being adopted.”

Click to comment

China

House Report Uncovers DOJ Secretly Investigated Nonprofit Accused of Channeling Taxpayer Funds to Wuhan Lab

Published

11 minutes ago

December 3, 2024

Sara Carter Staff

A bombshell House committee report released Monday, after a two year investigation, revealed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) secretly initiated a grand jury investigation into EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S. nonprofit accused of channeling taxpayer funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the lab suspected of causing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report, prepared by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, highlights concerns about EcoHealth’s grants, which allegedly funded gain-of-function research at the Chinese lab. Such research, aimed at enhancing viruses to study their potential risks, has been linked to theories suggesting the virus may have escaped from the lab. Efforts to access related records were reportedly obstructed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Internal emails and documents included in the report reveal that the grand jury issued subpoenas for genetic sequences and correspondence between EcoHealth Alliance’s president, Dr. Peter Daszak, and Dr. Shi Zhengli, a WIV scientist known as the “bat lady” for her work on coronaviruses. One email from EcoHealth’s legal counsel advised omitting references to the DOJ investigation when addressing congressional document requests, underscoring the probe’s secrecy.

The report also criticizes EcoHealth Alliance’s failure to comply with grant requirements. NIH funding facilitated a $4 million project on bat coronaviruses, $1.4 million of which was funneled to WIV. NIH deputy director Dr. Lawrence Tabak admitted the grant supported gain-of-function research, leading to highly infectious virus modifications.

The committee’s findings claim these experiments violated biosafety protocols, and Daszak failed to adequately oversee the research. Calls to bar Daszak and EcoHealth from future funding were reinforced by bipartisan agreement within the subcommittee.

The New York Post writes that the report also evaluated U.S. pandemic response measures, describing prolonged lockdowns as harmful to the economy and public health, especially for younger Americans. Mask mandates and social distancing policies were criticized as “arbitrary” and unsupported by conclusive scientific evidence. Public health officials’ inconsistent messaging, particularly from Dr. Anthony Fauci, contributed to public mistrust, according to the subcommittee.