Ron DeSantis says Puberty Blockers Chemically Castrate Youth

One thing that will never make sense to me is conservatives’ obsession with childbearing. Ron DeSantis is not exempt from this. DeSantis, who has his eyes on becoming president, is a staunch conservative and republican who signed a Don’t Say Gay bill into effect earlier this year.

In a debate on Monday, October 24, DeSantis made some awful remarks regarding trans individuals. Not only did he disparage the struggles that they have to go through, he also called hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, as well as hormone blockers, chemical castration.

“When they say ‘gender-affirming care,’ they mean giving puberty blockers to teenage girls and teenage boys,” he said during the debate, adding that doctors are, “chemically castrating young boys. A lot of kids go through a lot of different things. A lot of the dysphoria resolves itself by the time they become adults.”

That is incredibly untrue. Firstly, gender dysphoria can lead to so many other problems, the most severe being self harm and suicide. The National Library of Medicine says, “Data indicates that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth.”

Ron DeSantis’ opponent Charlie Crist had a good rebuttal, involving abortion into the conversation, “This reminds me of your position on a woman’s right to choose: You think you know better than any physician or any doctor—or any woman in a position to make decisions about their own personal health. You want to be the judge.” This brings up a really good point. Why do conservatives care so much about taking away human rights on the basis of their beliefs?

More teenagers get breast augmentations than mastectomies, and abortion clinics often offer other life-saving services to uterus owners. In that vein, hormone blockers can have their affects reversed and do not castrate anyone.