sian berry & carla denyer humiliated in parliament over their continued opposition to ban puberty blocker for children

On 11th December, Health Secretary Wes Steeting in his statement to Parliament announced his putting in place an indefinite order to restrict the sale and supply of puberty blockers for under-18s through a prescription issued by either a private UK prescriber , or a prescriber registered outside the UK.

In her response, leading transactivist Sian Berry and former co-leader of the Green Party, now MP for Brighton Pavillion said: “I am extremely worried and fearful about this decision to continue the blanket ban”.

Questioning the scientific evidence behind the Health Secretary’s decision, she asked about his reliance in the terms of reference and reasons for this decision and “on the purpose for which these drugs are being prescribed—that is, being trans—when they are safely used by young people for other conditions, as he acknowledges”.

Consistent with her long established radical critical justice mantra as shared by her LGBTIQTA + Greens loyal followers and as previously expressed in their Open Letter to Wes Streeting, she added: “Does he understand that this is, at heart, discriminatory ? “

The Health Secretary refuted the allegation and explained : ” A whole range of medicines are prescribed for a whole range of uses among a whole range of patient cohorts that may well be unsafe, inappropriate or ineffective for use by other patients with other conditions”.

And for good measure, added: ” That is a basic fact of medicine and, if I may say so, the hon. Member’s intervention is why we should listen to clinicians, not politicians.

The full debate can be found here

Non-binary Carla Denyer Green MP for Bristol Central and now co-leader of the Green Party later contributed to the debate with reference to the Council of Europe, sharing the concerns expressed by their experts that removing access to puberty blockers except through clinical trials may breach the fundamental ethical principles governing research, amounting to coercion and therefore a breach of young people’s human rights.

” Exactly how harmful that decision is, however, hinges on how easy or hard it is to get on the clinical trial ” she said and asked : ” How many places will there be on the trial ?”, adding: ” If he cannot at this stage, can he please reassure me that he will take careful consideration of the fact that if the trial is limited in size, that will cause harm to more trans and gender-questioning young people”.

“The trial will be uncapped” replied the Heath Secretary and confirmed : ” I reassure the hon. Member and the House that all NIHR-commissioned research must go through robust scientific and ethical approval processes, both of which can influence final study design”. Putting our Green MP firmly in his/her/their place, he stressed that in terms of the design of this trial “ethics is an integral part of the trial’s approval “.

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