Protect Children's Innocence Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, Pursuant to House Resolution 953, I call up the bill (H.R. 3492) to amend section 116 of title 18, United States Code, with respect to genital and bodily mutilation and chemical castration of minors, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. 3492.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, we as a Nation are facing one of the greatest crises of our time: Child abuse disguised as medical intervention. Children are being coerced by adults in positions of authority into life- altering and medically questionable gender transition procedures without a full understanding of the meaning or that impact.
Democrats have embraced an extreme position on this so-called gender- affirming care. They are more interested in promoting the radical left policies than protecting our children from harm. Despite the American public's widespread rejection of the practice in 2024, the radical left continues to distort the debate surrounding so-called gender affirming care.
Instead of accurately describing the procedures as harmful and life- altering, the left deceptively frames the procedures as being necessary to improve the health and the well-being of our children.
Through gender-affirming care, Democrats are indoctrinating children and causing them to make life-altering decisions about their body involving hormones and surgery and jeopardizing their health. So-called gender-affirming care is the genital mutilation and chemical castration of children. It is not lifesaving care. It is child abuse.
All evidence points to the fact that gender transition procedures, including the puberty blockers, the hormones, and the surgeries, are a form of genital mutilation. More and more de-transitioners, such as our brave Chloe Cole, are coming forward to share their horrific experiences of being used as experiments of the medical establishment. The majority of these brave transitioners are girls and women.
The first rule of medicine is do no harm. Yet, those in the medical community performing these grotesque procedures on children are committing some serious harm. In fact, these procedures are so grotesque that during the markup of this legislation, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle had a hard time hearing these specific procedures described. This begs the question: If they cannot bear to hear this, why are they forcing it on our children?
Doctors across the U.S. and other countries are beginning to take a stand against those in the medical community who insist on these being lifesaving procedures. They should be questioned. Even our neighbors to the North have acted responsibly.
In Canada, all genital surgeries are only available to children who are 18 years of age or older. This policy aligns with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health standards. According to these standards, a person must be the age of majority to undergo reassignment surgery.
Likewise, in Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden, the minimum age requirement to undergo any sex reassignment surgery is 18. We should not fall behind these countries when it comes to protecting our children.
The Protect Children's Innocence Act will hold those accountable who perform or attempt to perform genital mutilation and chemical castration on our children. This bill expands the covered offenses to include body mutilation and chemical castration of minors. Victims are protected by ensuring that they cannot be arrested or prosecuted if one of these, or other prohibited procedures, are performed on them.
This legislation continues President Trump's important priority to protect children. Earlier this year, President Trump issued an executive order titled: ``Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.'' This order defunds the chemical and surgical mutilation of children and halts the use of Federal funds supporting gender-affirming medical care for youth under the age of 19.
H.R. 3492 works to codify President Trump's executive order and amends section 116 of the United States Code to explicitly include bodily mutilation and chemical castration.
My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have lamented: Leave our children alone. Madam Speaker, that is exactly what this bill does. This issue is simple. Do not force children into making decisions that they will not be able to reverse. Do not make these children lifelong patients and dependent on the medical system. Most importantly, do not abuse our Nation's children.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I would like to mention that Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law recently not to notify parents. Administrators and schoolteachers don't notify parents that their kids are considering a transition. We do trust parents in many cases, but in a lot of cases in some of these blue States parents are not notified.
Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Greene).
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Georgia.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, this is not rare; 5,700 children had these surgeries, mainly between 2019 and 2023, in mainly blue States.
Here on PBMs, it says that puberty blockers have not been approved by the FDA for the indication of gender dysphoria, and they are off-label uses. So these are not safe uses in many cases of these transitions.
Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from South Carolina (Ms. Mace).
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, in February 2024, the American College of Pediatricians released a position statement detailing how social transition, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones have no demonstrable long-term benefits on the psychological well-being of adolescents in gender dysphoria.
I am reminded of a quote that a Vanderbilt University doctor said in 2022. He said: ``These affirming procedures are huge moneymakers.''
We are here to protect the children.
Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Moore).
Mr. MOORE of West Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation.
I thank Congresswoman Greene for bringing this bill up for debate here on the floor. I am a proud original cosponsor of this legislation.
We have heard a couple of people say that we are made in the image and likeness in God. For all of our clever scientific methods and self- rationalization out there, that is an absolute truth.
What this legislation is trying to do, and what it is going to do, God willing that it is signed into law, is prevent child abuse. That is what is going on in this country by allowing this. It is going to make it a felony for anybody to continue this abusive genital mutilation in this country on minors, on children. It is abhorrent what is being allowed right now in this country.
A felony, I think, is what is going to be able to stop this, and it should have been a felony a long time ago. I thank God that we have legislation that is going to make this criminal because it is a criminal act that is being done on the most vulnerable people in our society.
I point to a longitudinal study that was done by a Dr. Zucker years and years ago in Canada. They took minors who were looking at transitioning and actually gave them mental health counseling. By the end of that, at the age of 18, they had the option to transition or not. Ninety percent or more did not transition.
We have a mental health crisis in this country. Instead of addressing it, we are cutting people's body parts off. I rise in strong support of this legislation.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Greene).
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman).
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.
Madam Speaker, how about we just don't mutilate our children? I think that is a good call. This is allowing people above the age of 18 to make those decisions.
Most of us here were young people at one time or another. I can remember being in the second or third grade. There was a thing called cooties. I don't know if you all remember that, but if you hung around the girls, they would say: Oh, don't do that, you are going to get the ``cooties.'' I don't know if you ever heard that term. It is a south Alabama thing, Madam Speaker.
By the time we were in the sixth grade, we were on the gym floor, trying to decide whether or not to ask--we didn't have the courage to ask the girls to dance.
By the time we were in the 10th or 11th grade, we were hoping they would notice us in the hall. By the time we were seniors, maybe we had the courage to ask them on a date, and maybe they said yes.
The decisions they are wanting to make, these are kids that are in the second and third grade. These are not kids that are either old enough to understand that we might be interested, we might want to go in that direction. Like Marjorie said, only 12 percent of the males who go through this actually stick with it.
It is important to us to understand that these are children, and in many cases they are being bullied by the physicians. One of the physicians at Vanderbilt said: We make a boatload of money on these procedures.
Often, I think that it is more about the children and protecting the children than driving this ideological leftwing whatever it is and the mutilation of our children.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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