Take Action: Help Protect Children from “Gender-Altering” Drugs

Earlier this year, the Nebraska Legislature passed LB 574, the “Let Them Grow Act,” to protect children from “gender-reassignment” surgeries and establish regulations for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has released the final proposed regulations, and your action is needed to support implementing the strongest protections for vulnerable children as possible. 

Under the proposed regulations, before a minor can be prescribed puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, they must:

• • Receive at least 40 hours of counseling that is clinically objective, non-biased, and does not merely affirm the patient’s feelings (no more than two hours of therapy can be conducted per week).
  • Acquire informed patient consent, including discussion of all known side effects, including long-term effects on bone density, brain development, impact on fertility and sexual side effects, and alternative treatments, including social and behavioral alternatives.
  • Undergo a seven-day waiting period after obtaining the counseling and informed patient consent requirements before prescribing blockers or hormones.

Without these regulations in place, access to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones is unregulated, and children could receive these drugs after a single visit. Opponents are seeking to weaken these regulations, and your voice is needed to urge DHHS to protect the best interests of children by increasing and strengthening these regulations.

Written comments can be submitted online by emailing dhhs.regulations@nebraska.gov no later than 11:59 PM on November 27th.

Please take a moment and email your comments urging DHHS to protect children from the harmful consequences of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones by further strengthening the proposed regulations. Comments must be emailed to dhhs.regulations@nebraska.gov no later than 11:59 PM on November 27th.

SAMPLE EMAIL & TALKING POINTS

Please be polite and respectful. Choose two or three bullet points below, and personalize your own message.

Hello, my name is [FULL NAME], and I live at [ADDRESS]. I am emailing to submit a written comment regarding the adoption of Title 181, Chapter 8 of the Nebraska Administrative Code – Nonsurgical Pharmaceutical Gender Altering Treatments.

Children who are struggling to embrace their biological sex need love, support, and time—not harmful drugs with potentially lifelong, irreversible consequences.

• • Giving children puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for the purpose of “changing their gender” violates the first duty of medicine: Do No Harm.

  • There are many serious risks to prescribing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to minors, including decreased growth spurts, increased risk of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, and infertility.

  • The state’s priority should be on helping children receive the help they need to address underlying issues, not drugs with serious and potentially life-altering consequences.

  • Studies show that upwards of 90 percent of children will outgrow gender dysphoria with time.

  • The counseling requirements, informed patient consent, and waiting period can help ensure children receive help not harm, treatment not transition, and protection not politics, and they should be increased and intensified.

Please implement stronger regulations to protect children’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Thank you for your time and consideration.