by Eric Lendrum
A new study shows that during the period between 2016 and 2019, the number of “transgender surgeries” in the United States nearly tripled, due in large part to policies enacted by the Obama Administration.
As reported by the New York Post, the number of Americans who pursued surgical operations to “transition” to the opposite gender was around 4,500 in 2016. In 2019, that number rose dramatically to over 13,000. The study revealing these statistics was published on Wednesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association’s (JAMA) Network Open.
“Consistent with prior studies, we identified a remarkable increase in the number” of surgeries that were undertaken, said Dr. Jason Wright, one of the authors of the study. “These findings suggest that the number of procedures performed in the US has increased dramatically, nearly tripling from 2016 to 2019.”
The number of transgender surgeries had previously seen increases over similar periods of time, though not as drastically as the 2016-2019 period. From 2000 to 2005, and from 2006 to 2011, the number of procedures doubled in the United States.
The more recent and more drastic increase, Wright said, “is likely due in part to federal and state laws requiring coverage of transition-related care,” a policy that was implemented by Barack Obama.
There was a slight decline in 2020 – the final year included in the study – due to the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic, with about 12,800 surgeries that year. Overall, there were about 48,000 total surgeries between 2016 and 2020. Concurrent with the rise in surgeries, there was also a spike in “health system encounters for gender identity disorder,” which stood at 12,855 in 2016 and rose to 38,470 in 2020.
JAMA’s study did not include non-surgical procedures such as puberty blockers or hormone therapy, focusing solely on breast and chest surgeries, genital surgery, and facial and cosmetic reconstruction.
Such surgeries have been widely denounced as anti-science, serving to reinforce the delusions of those who suffer from the mental illness known as “gender dysphoria.” Efforts to mainstream this belief have led to the rise of transgenderism, the belief that anyone can simply choose to change their gender at any given time.
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Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
