AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD, issued the following statement about the importance of allowing doctors to provide gender-affirming care to transgender youth:
“The AAMC is committed to ensuring access to high-quality care that treats all people, including transgender individuals, equally and with respect, and providing training to physicians and other health care professionals that is consistent with those values.
In medical decision making, the doctor-patient relationship must be paramount, and the needs of the patient must be given precedence. Efforts to restrict the provision of gender-affirming health care for transgender individuals will reduce health care access for transgender Americans, promote discrimination, and widen already significant health inequities.
In addition to harming some of the most vulnerable patients, efforts to restrict care undermine the doctor-patient relationship and the principle that doctors are best equipped to work with patients and their families to arrive at shared decision-making.
The AAMC is committed to improving the health of all people everywhere, and we will continue to oppose any effort to restrict the health care community’s ability to provide necessary care to any patient in need.”