Sens. Cruz, Lee, Colleagues Introduce Bill to End Federal Funding for Gender Transition Research on Minors

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) introduced the Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act. This legislation prohibits the use of federal funds for research or publications that promote dangerous, life-altering, and irreversible gender transitions for minors.

Sen. Cruz said, "The Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act takes the long-overdue step of prohibiting federal dollars from supporting procedures that involve dangerous, life-altering, and irreversible gender transition research on minors. I am proud to join Senator Lee in this effort, and I urge my colleagues to pass this commonsense legislation."

Sen. Lee said, "Why is the federal bureaucracy in the child mutilation business? Americans don't want to pay millions for these disturbing studies where hundreds of kids are experimented on with puberty-blocking drugs. President Trump rightly halted this attack on America's kids. Our bill will codify his agenda to keep federal dollars out of gender transition research involving minors."

Sen. Daines said, "It's critical that taxpayer dollars are never used to experiment on our children. Gender-transition procedures are irreversible, potentially life-threatening, and a form of child abuse. I'm proud to co-sponsor this bill with Senator Lee to keep our children safe from harm."

Sen. Lankford said, "God creates every child male or female in His perfect image. For too long, taxpayers have been forced to fund sex-rejecting studies on kids. The result has been irreversible physical harm, mental health crises, and families torn apart. President Trump has led the effort to shut down these grants across the federal government, and Congress needs to make it permanent. This bill ensures that not one more taxpayer dollar funds research designed to harm children."

Sen. Blackburn said, "Taxpayers should not be spending a penny on research done by those who want to push harmful gender transition surgeries and radical gender ideology on our kids. The Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act would prohibit the use of federal funds for any research or study on gender transition surgeries for minors."

Sen. Lummis said, "For years, our tax dollars have funded research that experiments on children using treatments proven to cause irreversible harm. That ends today. Washington has no business bankrolling the radical left's agenda and calling it medicine, especially when it's our kids on the receiving end. Children deserve to be protected from ideology, not used as subjects for it, and this bill will ensure that the federal government doesn't fund such experimentation."

Sen. Tuberville said, "Thousands of America's children have fallen prey to the Radical Left's woke gender ideology. American families have been lied to for far too long as we know these surgeries cause irreversible harm. Subjecting healthy, developing children to damaging and harmful procedures without a grave medical purpose is BEYOND SICKENING. Taxpayers shouldn't be forced to pay for these extreme and reckless practices, or any of the left-wing propaganda promoting them. This vile attack on our children ends now with President Trump and his team. I'm proud to join Senator Lee in this crucial bill to stop the abuse of America's children and enforce the President's pro-family agenda."

This legislation is supported by Students for Life Action and the American Principles Project.

Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins said, "Students for Life Action will always stand for children, born and preborn, protecting them from the harmful abortion industry and their new moneymaker, sterilizing drugs and surgeries. The abortion industry doesn't care what happens to children, as long as they never hold a child of their own. The Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act would protect children from this growing industry that is anti-child and anti-life. Students for Life Action stands with Senator Lee and the Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act."

American Principles Project President Terry Schilling said, "The $4.5 billion Transgender Industrial Complex relies on pseudo-science to justify the sexual mutilation of children. Americans should never foot the bill for 'research' that permanently destroys kids' healthy bodies. The Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act provides commonsense protections to the family and to taxpayers. American Principles Project is proud to work with Sen. Lee on its passage."

Read the bill text here.

BACKGROUND

The Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act prohibits the use of federal funds for any research, observational study, or publication relating to gender transitions in individuals under the age of 18, which is conducted for the purpose of affirming a minor's asserted identity or perception of his or her sex, if such is incongruent with the minor's biological sex.