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Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. 311, H.R. 7147.

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I said at the beginning of this debate that I was going to use the word ``commonsense'' a lot, and that is because the SAVE America Act unites a bunch of commonsense policies, the kind of things that are just intuitively obvious--or, at least, they should be--and should be getting 80 to 90 votes, or more, here in the Senate.

I have talked at length this week about commonsense election policies like showing a photo ID at the polls and demonstrating that you are an American citizen, in other words, eligible to vote when you register.

Today, I want to talk about a couple of other commonsense policies in this bill, in this case, not about protecting our elections but about protecting our youth.

In recent years, we have seen men--biological men who identify as women--take up spaces in athletics meant for actual women and girls. And this is happening across a range of sports: track, swimming, volleyball, basketball, soccer, softball, and the list goes on.

Now, I don't think I really need to tell anyone the problems with that. They are pretty obvious. There is the physical danger, of course, that can be posed to women by men competing in their sports.

But more than that, this is an issue of fairness and equality. At the most basic level, every roster spot that goes to a male is a roster spot that doesn't go to a female. That is a high school girl who has lost out on the chance to play high school sports because a male has taken up her space.

And for those women who are on the roster, the presence of a male on the team can, and frequently does, rob them of opportunities to excel. The simple biological, scientific fact is that men possess physical advantages when it comes to sports, things like greater muscle mass and greater aerobic power. And that means that, by and large, men are likely to dominate in women's sport, taking wins and medal opportunities away from women.

And it is not just about the unfairness of losing out on a place on the podium. Being knocked out of medal contention can mean the loss of things like college scholarships. As one female runner who was robbed of multiple wins by a biological male described the situation, ``it robs girls of the chance to race in front of college scouts who show up for elite meets, and to compete for the scholarships and opportunities that come with college recruitment. I'll never know how my own college recruitment was impacted by losing those four state championship titles to a male. When colleges looked at my record, they didn't see the fastest girl in Connecticut. They saw a second- or third-place runner.''

Let me read that again.

When colleges looked at my record, they didn't see the fastest girl in Connecticut. They saw a second- or third- place runner.

That is unconscionable, and what is even more unconscionable is that my Democrat colleagues are apparently OK with allowing this to happen.

With the way they talk about themselves as defenders of women's rights, you would think they would be the first--the very first--people up to bat for fairness and equality for female athletes, but they are not.

Last March, the Senate took up the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, legislation to ensure that women--and women only-- participate in women's sports at federally funded educational institutions; and every single one of my Democrat colleagues voted against the bill. Not one Democrat had the courage to say that women's sports are for women.

As the father of two female athletes and grandfather to a granddaughter who started playing sports, I feel pretty passionately about the subject.

I am grateful for the tremendous strides we have made in women's athletic programs over the past half century, and I cannot believe that one half of the U.S. Senate is apparently content to see those gains undermined by allowing men to take up places in sports meant for women.

With the SAVE America Act, Democrats are getting another chance to vote for legislation that would protect women's sports. It would be nice if this time they had the courage to stand up for female athletes.

I wish this were the only issue--the only consequence of radical transgender ideology--that we had to worry about. But as bad as it is for a female athlete to lose out on a college scholarship because her achievements are overshadowed by those of a biological male, the subjection of children to gender transition procedures is even worse.

In recent years, substantial numbers of children diagnosed with gender dysphoria have been prescribed puberty blockers--cross-sex hormones--and, in the most extreme cases, been approved for irreversible surgical procedures that permanently mutilate their bodies. And all of this has been done with little to no scientific evidence to support these dramatic interventions.

The Cass Review--a landmark, comprehensive study on medicine, gender issues, and youth conducted in Great Britain--repeatedly highlights the lack of scientific evidence to support gender transition procedures for minors. And thanks in substantial part to that review, Britain's national science service decided to largely discontinue providing puberty blockers to children.

And Britain is not the only European country that has reined in its provision of gender procedures for minors--Finland, Sweden, and Denmark have also done so. And a New York Times piece notes that there is reason to believe that there are other European countries that may follow suit.

Meanwhile, both the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Medical Association have come out against surgical gender transition procedures for minors, noting the lack of evidence to support their use.

It has become very clear that we simply do not have substantial scientific evidence to suggest that gender transition procedures benefit children. What we do have, however, is scientific knowledge of how dangerous these procedures can be, and the list of side effects is long and serious.

A 2025 report from the Department of Health and Human Services notes that side effects for gender transition procedures can include infertility, loss of bone density, heart disease and metabolic disorders, surgical complications, negative cognitive impacts, psychiatric disorders, and more.

It is unthinkable that we are subjecting children to these dangers before they can have any real understanding of what they are consenting to.

Mr. President, 12- and 13-year-olds cannot understand what it will mean to possibly damage their bones for the long term. And 14- and 15- year-olds are not capable of comprehending what giving up their fertility could mean. That is because they are children. They are still changing and growing and developing, and through no fault of their own, they simply don't have the experience and knowledge to grasp the full magnitude of what they are consenting to.

The Senate has been officially debating the SAVE America Act, which would ban gender transition procedures for minors, since Tuesday; and I have been struck by the near total silence of my Democrat colleagues on this issue during this debate.

Despite their embrace of the extreme sort of radical gender ideology--witness the refusal of even one Democrat to stand up for women in sports--I am not sure I have seen a single Democrat come to the floor to defend gender transition procedures for minors.

Now, they could just be keeping their powder dry for now, but I have to wonder if maybe some Democrats are reluctant to publicly advocate for subjecting children to, in many cases, irreversible medical procedures backed up by little scientific evidence with a whole host of serious, long-term side effects.

Open the 2025 HHS report on gender transition for children, and you come across this horrifying passage:

In many areas of medicine, treatments are first established as safe and effective in adults before being extended to pediatric populations. In this case, however, the opposite occurred: clinician-researchers developed the pediatric medical transition protocol in response to disappointing psychosocial outcomes in adults who underwent medical transition.

I mean, just say that again:

[C]linician-researchers developed the pediatric medical transition protocol in response to disappointing psychosocial outcomes in adults who underwent medical transition.

We have essentially been using children as guinea pigs. It is unconscionable, and it should stop now.

The SAVE America Act will give every Member of this body a chance to take a stand against the abuse of children, and I urge every Member of this body to vote to protect children from further harm.
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Mr. THUNE. 311, H.R. 7147.

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Mr. THUNE. 311, H.R. 7147.

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