Landmark $2 Million Settlement in Gender Surgery Case Will Have ‘Ripple Effect’ | Jonathan Butcher
Jonathan Butcher examines the $2M malpractice settlement for Fox Varian, who had mastectomy at 16 amid unaddressed mental health concerns like anxiety and bullying. Doctors allegedly warned of suicide risks if gender-affirming care wasn’t pursued, despite research questioning such claims. A Heritage Foundation study challenges the narrative linking restrictions to higher suicide rates, while medical associations now oppose irreversible procedures for minors—raising questions about rushed diagnoses compared to cautious treatment of other conditions. This case may redefine accountability in gender medicine. [Automatically generated summary]
There was a landmark court case in New York court recently.
Fox Varian won a $2 million award for malpractice, liability for malpractice of a psychologist and a surgeon who took her breasts when she was 16 years old.
What's your reaction to this?
Well, according to the details of the case, the doctors involved pressured both the young lady and her parents, her mom in particular, to do this procedure without looking at what the underlying issues may be.
And actually, this is quite common in the research, that you find that those who say they were born in the wrong body often have underlying issues of anxiety, depression, perhaps they've been bullied in school.
And without dealing with those issues, you're really not helping that young person.
There's this standard line that is often given to parents, often with their children present.
I've learned, having covered this issue for some time, that if you don't go through this process of gender-affirming care, which leads to these mastectomies and so forth, your child will commit suicide.
Well, and there's research that we've done at the Heritage Foundation that shows that it's not true that suicide rates are higher in states that prevent these surgeries from happening to young people.
I mean, look, we don't allow young people to diagnose themselves with a sprained ankle or with pneumonia or a strep throat.
But when they say they were born in the wrong body for some reason, we say they need to be socially affirmed.
And we should move them along the process of pursuing counseling and then ultimately, as in this case, physical changes that will last with them forever.
And this is already having an impact.
So to comment on that a little bit too, I was frankly surprised how quickly.
Well, medical associations are now saying that they opposed these surgeries to young people.
They're changing their position from what it once was.