Pro-Life World View | February 7, 2025

Puberty blockers will keep generating conscience issues
Alex Penk – Ethos

Clinicians urged to exercise caution prescribing puberty blockers to young people suffering gender incongruence
Michelle Kaufman – FLI

Puberty blockers will keep generating conscience issues

Late last year, the Ministry of Health urged clinicians to “exercise caution” in prescribing puberty blockers to young people experiencing gender incongruence and dysphoria, citing a “lack of good quality evidence” to justify their use. Some New Zealand practitioners practising so-called gender-affirming care rejected the Ministry’s evidence-based cautionary approach, stating in media interviews medical intervention was indeed “safe.” However, Medical epidemiologist Professor Charlotte Paul (emeritus professor at Otago University) disagrees. Having analysed the Ministry of Health review she found that “[g]ender clinicians in New Zealand … are severely minimising the problems” involved in the use of puberty blockers.   Notably, Paul points out that children who are given puberty blockers tend to “go on to cross-sex hormones. Thus, puberty suppression may alter the trajectory of development of gender identity.”

FLI comment:
Gender incongruence and dysphoria are very real experiences for some young people. However, the evidence shows that over time, many will come to accept and even embrace their biological masculinity or femininity. There are many cases of regret among youth who have medically and surgically transitioned. The most loving and appropriate approach is to “wait and see” rather than the gender-affirming care model, which can lead to heart-breaking, irreversible damage both physically and psychologically.

A confession
Jackie Dettling – The Catholic Thing

A Confession

Jackie Dettling shares her abortion experience at the tender age of seventeen, thinking that “it was legal, easy, and affordable,” so must “not be a big deal.”

However, she admits: “When my child died, during that procedure, I lost part of my life, too.”

These are haunting words, but the story doesn’t end there. Dettling reveals the hope and endlessly deep mercy of God: His forgiveness and healing, even if always tinged with the pain of regret.  She also tells of the urgent need for us to teach truth, catechise our children, and build an authentic culture of life. 

Detransitioners powerful stories showcased in IWFs Identity Crisis docuseries
Mairead Elordi – The Daily Wire

Detransitioner stories featured in ‘Identity Crisis’ docuseries

“Identity Crisis” is a docuseries that explores personal stories of women harmed by gender ideology.  By featuring detransitioners, medical professionals, and mothers, the goal is to create a deep understanding of complex policy issues and inspire change through personal experience.
The docuseries producer is Independent Women’s Forum, which began using the power of storytelling in 2022 after more and more people started sharing how they or someone close to them had been harmed. 

Yes marriage still matters for fertility – new evidence
Lyman Stone – Institute for Family Studies

Yes, Marriage Still Matters For Fertility: New Evidence

New evidence analysed by the Institute for Family Studies confirms that “declining marriage is the proximate cause of falling fertility in many societies.” The data is summarised in an easily digestible form, clearly showing that married couples are far more likely to have a family and more likely to have more than one child.  Marriage most definitely matters!

Davos and the global movement to stop gender ideology
Iulia-Elena Cazan – C-Fam

Davos and the Global Movement to Stop Gender Ideology

In a speech to the World Economic Forum, Argentinian President Javier Milei proclaimed: “It is our moral duty and our historical responsibility to dismantle the ideological edifice of sickly wokeism,” citing new alliances working to “remove this abhorrent ideology from our culture, our institutions, and our laws.”

Among Milei’s allies are Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Despite being well aware of the battle lines and the challenges ahead, President Milei’s courageous and transparent words are a refreshing change from the usual verbiage from Davos.