Reporters like to describe transgender surgery performed on minors as “health care,” but that’s just a euphemism, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters on Friday.
At a press conference, DeSantis discussed a bill (SB 254) prohibiting anyone under 18 from receiving transgender surgery or prescription-based cross-sex hormones, which he intends to sign this week. DeSantis corrected a reporter who accused the government of denying transgender “health care”:
“When you talk to people – and I know like people in your industry will dress it up with a euphemism and they’ll say it’s ‘health care’ to cut off the private parts of a 14 or 15 year-old - that is not health care. That is mutilation.
“And so, when we’re standing up against that, we’re protecting these kids.”
Many of the people who underwent transgender treatments as children grow up to regret it and say they were manipulated into transitioning, DeSantis noted:
“We’ve had other people, who went through this when they were minors, now they’re older, and it’s like the biggest regret of their life. They feel like that they were manipulated.
“I understand there are some physicians that are very ideological about it. But, the fact is, people go through a lot when they’re teenagers. You grow out of it most of the time in these situations, 80, 90 percent resolves by the time you get there.”