Government slammed for new extension of puberty blockers ban
Health secretary Wes Streeting has been slammed for refusing to lift a puberty blockers ban. (Getty/Canva)
Activists have criticised the UK government for renewing a temporary ban on puberty blockers.
The Department for Health announced last week that it had renewed the ban on the private sale and supply of the medication, originally put in place by the Conservative government.
The emergency order, approved by then health secretary Victoria Atkins, was enacted shortly after NHS governing bodies in England, Scotland and Wales banned prescriptions of the medicine.
The renewed order will not only extend the ban’s length but also now cover private prescriptions in Northern Ireland.
The medication, primarily used by those under the age of 18, delays unwanted elements of physical puberty. The NHS has described its effects as reversible, and there is no definitive evidence that it is harmful.
LGBTQ+ not-for-profit trans advocacy group, TransActual, described the decision to extend the ban as “dangerous” and accused the government of “interfering in decisions that should be made between a patient and their doctor”.
The group launched an appeal against the original ban, alongside the Good Law Project, but a High Court judge ruled in July that the emergency order was “rational” and was meant to “avoid serious danger to the health of children and young people.”
Reacting to the extended ban, TransActual said: “The new government had the opportunity to make a clean break from the previous government’s politicisation of trans people’s lives and access to healthcare. Instead, they have doubled down on it.
“[The Health Department] knows that banning puberty blockers will not stop trans young people from accessing puberty blockers but instead lead them to access them through the grey and black market without access to blood testing or appropriate medical supervision… [health secretary] Wes Streeting and his advisors know this because he was told about it when meeting with the representatives of LGBTQ+ organisations.”
Streeting, who has said he regrets previously saying that “trans women are women”, told the High Court that he was against ending the ban.
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