Donald Trump gives a fist pump arriving at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in September 2020. Photo: Shutterstock
On Tuesday, the campaign of former President Donald Trump announced that, if elected, his new administration will make it a felony to perform gender affirming surgeries on minors without parental consent.
“To protect our children from sexual mutilation, we will make it a felony for any medical professional to perform surgery on a minor without parental consent,” the campaign reportedly stated in a prepared speech for a rally in Howell, Michigan.
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From prepared remarks:
“I am announcing today that I will be asking for the DEATH PENALTY for child rapists and child traffickers.”
“And to protect our children from sexual mutilation, we will make it a felony for any medical professional to perform surgery on a minor without…
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This announcement was one along with several others for Trump’s speech. However, it was not announced at the actual rally—instead, the announcement came from a full speech being revealed to select reporters. It was celebrated on X by Karoline Leavitt, the former Trump administration’s assistant press secretary.
Currently, there is no evidence that such procedures take place. Gender-affirming surgeries for minors are exceedingly rare, with such procedures most commonly done on cisgender boys with gynecomastia, a disorder that leads to unwanted breast development.
However, in every case of a gender-affirming surgery done on a minor, it is done with parental consent and heavy parental involvement in the child’s gender transition.
Trump’s speech also highlighted several other policy positions, including his stance that child rapists deserve the death penalty automatically.
“I am announcing today that I will be asking for the DEATH PENALTY for child rapists and child traffickers,” the prepared speech allegedly states.
It is unclear what purpose the death penalty serves. Scientific evidence suggests that it is not an effective deterrent for crime. Additionally, according to the criminal justice reform group The Innocence Project, 4% of all death penalty convictions are against innocent people, many of whom are people of color.
The proposal is part of Trump’s general policy stance depicting the Harris administration as weak on crime.
“They’re just weak on crime,” Trump said last week of the Harris campaign during a Pennsylvania rally. “They don’t mind if somebody murders somebody. They don’t want them to go to jail. You can kill somebody now. They do a lot of bad things, and we have to win this election because crime statistics are a disaster.”
Whether the Harris campaign is “weak” on crime is largely a subjective belief. However, there is no evidence that crime rates have increased during the Harris administration. In fact, they have been on a steady decline the past few years.
