U.S. Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Steve Daines, James Lankford, Marsha Blackburn, Cynthia Lummis, and Tommy Tuberville introduced the Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act on July 31 in Washington, D.C. The proposed legislation seeks to prohibit the use of federal funds for research or publications that promote gender transitions for individuals under 18 years old.
Cruz said, “The Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act takes the long-overdue step of prohibiting federal dollars from supporting procedures that involve dangerous, life-altering, and irreversible gender transition research on minors. I am proud to join Senator Lee in this effort, and I urge my colleagues to pass this commonsense legislation.”
Lee said, “Why is the federal bureaucracy in the child mutilation business? Americans don’t want to pay millions for these disturbing studies where hundreds of kids are experimented on with puberty-blocking drugs. President Trump rightly halted this attack on America’s kids. Our bill will codify his agenda to keep federal dollars out of gender transition research involving minors.”
Daines said it is critical that taxpayer dollars are never used to experiment on children and called gender-transition procedures irreversible and potentially life-threatening. Lankford added that taxpayers have been forced to fund sex-rejecting studies resulting in harm and mental health crises among children: “God creates every child male or female in His perfect image. For too long, taxpayers have been forced to fund sex-rejecting studies on kids. The result has been irreversible physical harm, mental health crises, and families torn apart. President Trump has led the effort to shut down these grants across the federal government, and Congress needs to make it permanent. This bill ensures that not one more taxpayer dollar funds research designed to harm children.” Blackburn stated that no taxpayer money should be spent promoting what she described as harmful surgeries or ideology regarding gender transitions for minors.
Lummis said: “For years, our tax dollars have funded research that experiments on children using treatments proven to cause irreversible harm. That ends today… Children deserve to be protected from ideology…and this bill will ensure that the federal government doesn’t fund such experimentation.” Tuberville commented, “Thousands of America’s children have fallen prey to the Radical Left’s woke gender ideology…This vile attack on our children ends now with President Trump and his team.”
The legislation is supported by Students for Life Action and American Principles Project. Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life Action said her organization supports efforts protecting children from what she characterized as harmful practices: “Students for Life Action will always stand for children…protecting them from the harmful abortion industry and their new moneymaker, sterilizing drugs and surgeries…The Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act would protect children from this growing industry that is anti-child and anti-life.” Terry Schilling of American Principles Project also voiced support: “The $4.5 billion Transgender Industrial Complex relies on pseudo-science…Americans should never foot the bill for ‘research’ that permanently destroys kids’ healthy bodies.”
According to its sponsors, The Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act prohibits any federally funded study or publication relating specifically to affirming a minor’s asserted identity when incongruent with biological sex.
Cruz serves as U.S. Senator representing Texas; he previously served as solicitor general of Texas after graduating cum laude from Princeton University and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School; he clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist at the Supreme Court; he champions constitutional liberties among other policy priorities; Cruz has two daughters with his wife Heidi, according to his official website.