Ben Shapiro Exposes American Medical Association’s Use of Sham Science in Recent Vote

The American Medical Association’s (AMA) House of Delegates voted last week to advocate for legislation “to ban so-called reparative or conversion therapy for sexual orientation or gender identity.” The group says they will work to “develop model state legislation” and push for federal legislation to ban help for those with unwanted homosexuality or transgenderism.

Ben Shapiro says the move would stop any professional help for gender confused children. The conservative author and radio show host said: “You bring your five-year-old son to the doctor, because your five-year old son keeps maintaining that he is a girl. The AMA wants to ban any therapy that does not say that your kid is a girl. This is not science….as we will see.”

In a podcast episode from The Ben Shapiro Show, “Virtue Signaling Isn’t Science,” Shapiro clarified that he’s not supporting some sort of treatment that’s coercive or abusive: “No one, no one is in favor of electrocuting kids in order to make them not gay. No one is talking about that. No one is in favor of electroshock therapy for kids with gender identity disorder or gender dysphoria.”

He explained that treatment such as this, employed decades ago by psychiatrists, are not in use today. Instead, groups like the AMA want to ban simple talk therapy for those with unwanted homosexuality or gender confusion. The medical organization doesn’t want therapists to explore why a child might be sexually confused. Instead, the AMA supports therapy that will move children one direction: towards transgenderism.

Shapiro focused on the threat to parents, saying that the left views those who don’t affirm a child’s gender dysphoria as derelict parents, “and child protective services comes for you.”

The fast-talking radio host is right. Government censorship of therapy for children with gender dysphoria is an assault on parental rights. In five years of testifying against therapy bans at the Denver Capitol, I heard lawyers and legislators repeatedly say that parents who want to help gender-confused children embrace their bodily reality are committing a form of child abuse and this should be a “reportable offense.”

Shapiro cited the huge increase in transgender-identified children and adolescents in the U.S. and England in recent years and believes we should help these young people embrace their biological sex. “Not giving children the care they need is evil,” he said.

He explained that this agenda by the AMA is anti-science, based on a single, faulty study published in JAMA Psychiatry. It purportedly showed that “conversion therapy” harms transgender-identified individuals. He cited an article in which sociology professor Mark Regnerus debunked the biased, deeply flawed study. Shapiro called the research “politically driven,” “garbage” and “junk science,” along with occasionally stronger epithets.

The Daily Citizen published an article about the study last month, “Faulty ‘Study’ Alleges Pastors and Therapists Lead to Transgender Suicide.” But it’s good to hear someone like Shapiro explain to a large audience that politics is driving medicine and gender ideology is being used as a “lever to bully parents.” As a sad result, children and adolescents are being fast-tracked toward permanent, body-altering drugs and surgery.

Listen to Ben Shapiro’s podcast (occasional strong language, may not be appropriate for younger ears): “Virtue Signaling Isn’t Science.”