As a part of a collection of advertisements specializing in transgender points, the main political motion committee for Senate Republicans attacked Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown over his stance on gender-affirming look after minors.
Brown, who has held his Senate seat since 2007 and broadly supported LGBTQ+ rights all through his profession, is operating in opposition to Republican businessman Bernie Moreno in a hotly contested swing state contest.
In a TV advert, the Senate Management Fund described President Joe Biden as having “an excessive liberal agenda” that Brown helps.
“Brown backed Biden, voting to let organic transgender males take part in ladies’s sports activities and supported permitting puberty blocker and sex-change surgical procedures for minors,” the advert’s narrator mentioned.
We already checked the Senate Management Fund’s claims about Brown’s votes on transgender athletes, discovering the declare False. The declare about gender-affirming look after minors is extra advanced.
The advert cited a July 19, 2023, interview Brown gave to WSYX-TV in Columbus, Ohio.
We couldn’t discover the total interview. The Senate Management Fund equipped a closed-caption transcript of the information section, through which a reporter requested Brown about laws from Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, that aimed to ban gender-affirming look after minors.
S. 2357, the “Defend Kids’s Innocence Act,” sought to make it a felony for docs to offer surgical procedure or prescribe puberty blockers to anybody youthful than 18.
“A toddler’s well being care choices are between them, their dad and mom, their households and their docs,” Brown mentioned, based on an archived snippet of the interview. “Not politicians. I’ll by no means agree with anybody that desires to deliver politics into the household state of affairs with well being care. Interval.”
Vance’s invoice — which might have established punishment for docs performing the procedures — was referred to a committee. It by no means acquired a vote.
When PolitiFact requested Brown’s marketing campaign whether or not Brown helps docs offering gender-reassignment surgical procedure and puberty blockers to minors, spokesperson Matt Keyes responded broadly.
“Sherrod cares concerning the well being and well-being of all kids. He doesn’t consider the federal government has any function in a household’s private healthcare choices,” Keyes mentioned.
Brown has lengthy supported insurance policies advocated by LGBTQ+ rights activists, together with marriage equality. In 2017, he launched the Senate’s first Satisfaction Month Decision. Human Rights Marketing campaign,the LGBTQ+ civil rights group, has endorsed him. However Brown has mentioned comparatively little particular to gender-affirming look after minors, although has typically mentioned he helps permitting sufferers to make choices with their docs.
The Senate Management Fund additionally pointed us to a March 31, 2023, letter Brown and eight different Democratic senators signed that requested the Biden administration to make use of government motion on a number of insurance policies to make sure LGBTQ+ folks’s entry to well being care. The letter famous that a number of states had enacted laws “to limit entry to gender affirming look after minors” and requested President Joe Biden to permit Medicaid to cowl bills for sufferers touring or shifting to acquire gender-affirming care.
Gender-affirming care is an individualized well being care mannequin that prioritizes encouraging and supporting an individual’s gender identification — it is greater than puberty blockers and surgical procedure. The World Well being Group defines it as “any single or mixture of a lot of social, psychological behavioural or medical (together with hormonal therapy or surgical procedure) interventions designed to assist and affirm a person’s gender identification.”
Earlier than puberty, this care consists of issues corresponding to utilizing the identify and pronouns that align with a baby’s gender identification. At older ages, it might probably embody evidence-based medical therapies corresponding to puberty blockers or hormone therapies. Gender-affirming surgical procedures are usually not generally really useful for or offered to minors.
Gender-affirming surgical procedure could be very uncommon amongst minors in america.
Our ruling
The Senate Management Fund mentioned in an advert that Brown “supported permitting puberty blockers and sex-change surgical procedures for minor kids.”
The advert cited a neighborhood TV information interview Brown gave a few invoice that may have banned gender-affirming care of all types. Within the interview, Brown didn’t particularly handle assist for “puberty blockers and sex-change surgical procedures for minor kids.” He mentioned solely that he doesn’t assist the federal government intervening in private well being care choices.
In 2023, Brown signed a letter urging the Biden administration to broadly shield entry to gender-affirming care. Gender affirming care is any sort of well being care that prioritizes assist for an individual’s gender identification. It isn’t restricted to surgical procedure and puberty blockers; and surgical procedure is uncommon amongst minors.
We price the declare Principally False.
RELATED: Republican tremendous PAC twists Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s votes on transgender athletes
