The U.S. has more lenient policies on chemical and surgical sex change services for children than any European country, according to a new report.

A new policy review by medical watchdog group, Do No Harm, found that the United States utilizes the least amount of child safeguarding pertaining to medical transition services when compared with 11 European countries.

“Overall, our policy review reveals the United States is the most permissive country when it comes to the legal and medical gender transition of children,” the report concluded.

The study analyzed the laws of European nations and concluded that the United States provides greater legal and medical access to gender transition services for children, such as gender clinics, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, in some cases without parental consent.

In the United States, the majority of states have laws that necessitate the consent of a parent or guardian before puberty blockers can be prescribed to children, starting as young as eight years old. However, Oregon is an exception as it allows anyone 15 or older to access puberty blockers without the need for parental consent.

The study highlights that in many European countries, puberty blockers are not available without parental consent until the age of 18. However, with parental consent, they can be obtained at 16 years old. In contrast, Sweden permits access to puberty blockers with consent at the age of 12, Finland at 13, while Denmark and Ireland allow it at 15.

The review of 11 progressive Western and Northern European nations reveals that they almost entirely restrict the use of cross-sex hormones until age 16, following psychotherapy sessions. In contrast, children in America can receive cross-sex hormones at the age of 13, or even younger in clinical trials.

European countries do not permit surgeries for minors without parental consent due to the policies set by the national health care systems in place. According to the review, every Western and Northern European country except for one prohibits gender-related surgeries for minors until they reach the age of 16 or, more commonly, 18. The United States has documented cases of minors as young as 12 receiving surgeries to remove their breasts.

In contrast to Europe, where there are only one to three clinics for trans-identified youth, the U.S. has an excess, with over 60 pediatric gender clinics and at least 300 other clinics or medical offices providing chemical and surgical sex change treatments to minors.

Do No Harm’s chairman, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, said that radical gender ideology is to blame for the United States’ departure from the growing international consensus. Sweden, Finland, and England have conducted the necessary evidence reviews, as has Florida’s Boards of Medicine, with each concluding that the risks of pediatric medical transition far outweigh any purported benefits. This resulted in the closure of prominent gender clinics, strict restrictions on the use of cross-sex hormones, and banning of gender-related surgeries for minors.

“The evidence supports such caution,” Goldfarb penned in a New York Post article, co-written by child psychiatrist Dr. Miriam Grossman. “There’s an extremely high likelihood — confirmed by almost a dozen studies — that childhood-onset gender incongruence will resolve on its own by adolescence or adulthood.”

“And the sudden rise of transgender identification in youth, especially teen girls, has occurred too fast to properly study, rendering it too new to properly understand, much less medicalize,” he added.

Do No Harm recently launched a new initiative, “Protecting Minors from Gender Ideology,” to educate both policymakers and the public on the “disastrous consequences of the unproven and often harmful practice known as ‘gender-affirming care.’”

This article is a companion piece to today’s Morning Wire Afternoon Update. To listen to the podcast version, click here.

Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon Flies Over The U.S.

U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed outrage after learning Thursday that a Chinese surveillance balloon has been traveling over the continental U.S., including Montana.

In a joint statement, the GOP and Democrat leaders of a House select committee on China called for a strong response from the administration.

The statement read in part, “The Chinese Communist Party should not have on-demand access to American airspace.”

The committee leaders said the surveillance airship’s presence over the U.S. shows that the threat China poses “is not confined to distant shores — it is here at home and we must act to counter this threat.” China has issued its own statement, insisting the incursion into U.S. territory was “unintended” and that the balloon is meant for quote “mainly meteorological” research.

A Pentagon spokesman has said that the balloon “does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground” — and that they have chosen not to shoot it down thus far to prevent risk to people below. Amid the controversy over the balloon, the Biden administration has decided to postpone Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s upcoming trip to China.

Amazon Could Have Majority Robot Workforce

Investor Cathie Wood predicts that by 2030, Amazon could have more robots than it has human workers at the company, pointing out that Amazon is adding “about 1,000 robots a day.”

Facebook’s Parent Company Plummets In Revenue

The net income of Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, plummeted 41% over the course of last year, as indicated by the company’s last earnings report.

Narcan Nasal Spray Coming To Los Angeles Schools

Students at Los Angeles Unified School District will likely soon be able to have Narcan nasal spray on them in the event of a drug overdose. Narcan is a medication used to “reverse or reduce the effects of opioids.” Like many parts of the country, LA is experiencing an explosion of opioid overdose deaths.

Ted Cruz Demands China Release Texas Prisoner

Texas lawmakers, including GOP Senator Ted Cruz, are ramping up pressure on the Biden administration to demand the freedom of a Houston businessman, Mark Swidan, who has been imprisoned in China since 2012 after being accused and convicted in 2019 of taking part in a criminal drug conspiracy.

Energy Seeks To Regulate Gas Stoves

The Energy Department proposed new rules Wednesday that would mandate a certain energy consumption threshold for gas stoves even after the possibility of a nationwide ban garnered backlash.

Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka, Jr. said during an interview last month that gas stoves constitute a “hidden hazard” and said “any option is on the table” for a nationwide prohibition. A consumer Product Safety Commission chairman later walked back the commissioner’s comments, saying that neither he nor the agency planned to outlaw gas stoves.

Masks Make ‘Little To No Difference,’ Study Claims

The Cochrane Institute examined 78 global studies on the effectiveness of masks and found that masks made “little to no difference” in the spread of respiratory infections. The studies involved more than 1 million people worldwide. Surgical masks reduced the risk of transmission of COVID or other flu-like illnesses by 5% the study found. The CDC’s latest guidance still recommends wearing masks in some situations, including indoor public transportation settings.

Sims 4 Has Transgender Options

And “The Sims 4” video game recently updated avatar options to include expanded transgender options. These include scars of breast removal surgery, chest binders, as well as additional medical wearable devices.

To listen to the audio version of this podcast, click here. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.