24 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
A SECOND OPINION
This space is for our physician members to speak their minds freely on both medical or non-medical issues of the day and respond to the opinions of others . The GLMS Editorial Board reserves the right to choose what will be published . Please note that the views expressed in A Second Opinion or any other article in this publication are not those of the Greater Louisville Medical Society or Louisville Medicine .
It ’ s been getting ever more painful to be female , gay or transgender in this country because of the increasing influence of a punitive , restrictive worldview . It ’ s now the law in Kentucky that males who identify as females cannot compete on female-only teams for schools , clubs and colleges beginning in sixth grade : their stated gender must now match the one on their birth certificates . At least 18 states have passed such laws as of July 2022 . Nothing was restricted in Kentucky so far as co-ed teams .
Nowhere from the supporters of such laws have I read of actual harm caused to the garden variety girls and women these laws purport to protect . Cases cited in other states in the search for “ unfair advantage , our girls will never win again ” evidence have not panned out over multiple competitions . 1 No Kentucky lawmaker could cite an actual case in Kentucky . 2 As an opponent of such laws , I share the concerns of adults who know and love such youth : already , over half of the transgender young have contemplated or attempted suicide in the U . S ., and have the most deaths from suicide of any category of youth in America . Now they have been robbed of one of the true , best joys of youth , playing with your homies where even when you drop the ball , they ’ ve got your back .
They ’ ll miss all “ the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat .” Sporty youth grow up together learning the lessons of teams : everybody contributes , everybody matters , don ’ t let the side down and don ’ t hog the pizza . Instead of belonging to a peer group focused on fun and healthy all-out effort and improvement with
Pride & Punishment
by MARY BARRY , MD friends who celebrate you , push you and console you – they ’ ve been kicked to the curb . Once again , they ’ ve been told they are different and wrong , damaged , unworthy , unacceptable . When you are 13 , pimples can feel like the end of the world . Imagine living with this proof , every day , that those with power over you fear and disrespect you .
This total lack of compassion again was striking in the case of the 10-year-old girl who became pregnant from rape . She was six weeks along when she had to travel from Ohio to Indiana to end the pregnancy medically . The treating doctor had on June 2 filed all the correct legal papers , but Indiana ’ s Attorney General Todd Rokita failed to tell the media . 3 He said in a June 13 TV interview on Fox News that the treating MD “ had a history of failing to report .” He said , “ We ’ re gathering the information , we ’ re gathering the evidence as we speak , and we ’ re going to fight this to the end , including looking at her licensure . It ’ s a crime to not report , to intentionally not report .” The doctor ’ s attorney had to send a cease-and-desist letter to him threatening further legal action if he continued his same course .
According to the Guttmacher Institute , in 2020 , in Ohio alone , 52 girls under 15 years of age needed an abortion . 4 Its last full year of national data for girls under 15 years old is from 2017 , where 44 % of 4,460 pregnancies ended in abortion . Girls this age are not old enough legally to give consent for sex . Incest and rape are common , but exact statistics – which involve police reports that further complicate the abuse victims ’ lives – are hard to come by . Of the many states rushing abortion bans into print , 11 already make no exception to allow termination for pregnancy resulting from rape or incest . Kentucky , Tennessee and Ohio are among