The following is an excerpt of an op-ed submitted by WoLF Sister in Action Lydia S., published March 26th in the Albuquerque Journal.

Did you know it is now illegal in the state of New Mexico for doctors, therapists, teachers or anyone else who receives state funds to prevent or discourage a child from receiving puberty blockers, opposite sex hormones, surgeries, or even socially transition to the opposite sex?

This is the result of the enactment of the Reproductive and Gender Affirming Health Care Act that most New Mexicans thought was about protecting doctors who provided abortion care to women.

Once again, special interest groups have successfully force-teamed the rights of parents and caretakers with the pseudo-scientific belief that their children can be born in the “wrong body,” and require experimental, dangerous and expensive medical interventions to fix this mistake. Many of these “gender affirming” interventions cause life-long complications.

Molly McClain, head of the UNM Deseo clinic, doesn’t seem to think there’s anything worth worrying about. She claims that no teen under the age of 18 is receiving gender care from her clinic without the permission of parents.

But, from my own personal experience, many parents are pressured into accepting these treatments for their children, and put under duress when they agree to these treatments.

I was told that “affirmation” was the only way to relieve my child’s suffering. He had threatened self-harm and his extreme behavioral changes made my family’s life like hell.

I was told I should go through with these treatments, even though puberty suppression is dangerous and has known and unknown long-term physical consequences that continue even after stopping these drugs.

I was told puberty suppression is a “pause button”, but it is not.

Read the rest in the Albuquerque Journal →

Read More: WoLF Tracks

Contributors to WoLF Tracks have provided permission to share their content. While WoLF does not necessarily endorse all of the content in WoLF Tracks, we value our members' contributions and request revisions or edits to improve readability. Please read our User Generated Content policy for more information on community content. Learn more about WoLF membership here.