State Senate leaders, under pressure from transgender activists, scheduled a new vote to fund sterilizing transgender procedures despite previously announcing Saturday’s Senate Health Committee was the last hearing of the year. 

According to the Senate Health Committee staff, the change came from Committee Chair Senator Richard Pan and Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, a member of the LGBT Legislative Caucus. The Monday, August 10 hearing comes as a surprise after Pan’s spokesperson previously said the committee cut AB 2218 from consideration after being told to “evaluate and prioritize bills based on relevance to the current crisis our state and nation faces.” AB 2218 did not fit that criterion.

But when the Senate did not schedule AB 2218 for last Saturday’s Health Committee hearing, trans-activists put pressure on Pan to change his mind. They enlisted California immigrant-rights icon Dolores Huerta who urged supporters to call Senator Pan’s office, pushing messages of “Don’t Let AB 2218 Die.”

Now the fate of AB 2218, authored by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D) Los Angeles with principal co-author Senator Scott Wiener (D) San Francisco, is in the hands of the nine members of the Senate Health Committee.

AB 2218 made its way through the Democrat-dominated state Assembly with little debate and was approved mostly along party lines. The bill establishes an “LGBT Transgender Wellness Fund” to provide grants to nonprofits, hospitals, healthcare clinics (like Planned Parenthood), and other medical providers. Taxpayers will be forced to pay for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, mastectomies for minors, and cross-sex hormones and “sex-change” operations for adults. Initially, the bill asked for $15 million to start the fund, but legislators scrapped that amount. Now the exact amount added to the fund will be decided by the legislature at a later date.

Dr. Quentin Van Meter is a board-certified pediatric endocrinologist who testified against AB 2218 in the Assembly Health Committee. Van Meter cited studies showing children treated with cross-sex hormones for their gender confusion have “significant mental health issues” that remain even after hormone therapy. Van Meter also warned legislators that the state would be sued in the coming years for funding transgender affirming treatments for troubled and vulnerable children because they destroy healthy body tissue, sterilize the recipient, and cause irreversible damage.

This republished article originally appeared here: https://californiafamily.org/2020/caving-to-pressure-from-trans-activists-senators-revive-bill-to-fund-sterilizing-kids/