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Sex change for 12-year-old girl

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And we thought this was bad… A court in Australia authorized a taxpayer-funded sex swap for a 12-year-old girl, despite her father’s objections (the mother is sad but supportive). 

The child’s lawyer told the court she considered the girl capable of making an informed decision.

The girl is one of the youngest patients in Australia granted permission to begin a sex swap.

The court was told early intervention was needed because the child was stressed and anxious at the prospect of starting her period and had threatened self-harm.

Hormones implanted under her skin every three months will stop her menstruating and prevent her hips and breasts growing.

The court heard the hormone therapy was reversible and would give the family “breathing time”.
A further court application must be lodged in coming years for testosterone treatment to deepen her voice and promote growth of facial hair and muscles.

Surgery to remove her womb or ovaries, or build an artificial penis must wait until she is at least 18.

Excuse me, I need to go take a crazy pill…

[h/t Mark Steyn]

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Tanya adds: Here’s some added insight into this story:

The court heard the hormone therapy was reversible and would give the family “breathing time” with progresive sex change treatments and operations requiring further court orders. The cousin questioned how “reversible” the treatment was. “There will be psychological consequences that are not reversible,” the cousin said. “I don’t think the side effects have been adequately considered. How people threat her will have an effect. “She will never have this time in her life again.”

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Andrea adds: I don’t mean to add an “I told you so” element to this discussion but first thing I thought when I read Brigitte’s post is that this girl cannot have had a happy family. And what do you know…

The girl had only expressed the strong desire to be a boy since the parents had a bitter break-up, according to the cousin.

The whole thing is so sad.

Well. Now at least we know.

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A chilling piece in today’s Toronto Star. GTA’s secret world of polygamy:

Polygamy is happening in Toronto; it’s not common, but it’s happening,” said [Aly] Hindy, imam at Salahuddin Islamic Centre.

Hindy, hardly a stranger to controversy, is well known for his friendship with the family of Omar Khadr, the young Canadian detainee at Guantanamo Bay, and his outspoken views on the implementation of Islamic law. In the past five years, Hindy said he has officiated or “blessed” more than 30 polygamous marriages; the most recent was two months ago. Even some imams in the GTA have second wives, he added.

“This is in our religion and nobody can force us to do anything against our religion,” he said. “If the laws of the country conflict with Islamic law, if one goes against the other, then I am going to follow Islamic law, simple as that.”

How much you wanna bet nobody forces him to choose?

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Rebecca adds: This is illegal, right? Is he not admitting to breaking the law by marrying people who are already married? 

Shall we take bets on how long until he’s arrested? [cue crickets chirping]

 

Alice Walker’s daughter writes

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What was it like growing up with a world-famous feminist mother? Not fun:

My mother’s feminist principles coloured every aspect of my life. As a little girl, I wasn’t even allowed to play with dolls or stuffed toys in case they brought out a maternal instinct. It was drummed into me that being a mother, raising children and running a home were a form of slavery. Having a career, travelling the world and being independent were what really mattered according to her.

[…]

I was very lonely and, with my mother’s knowledge, started having sex at 13. I guess it was a relief for my mother as it meant I was less demanding. And she felt that being sexually active was empowering for me because it meant I was in control of my body.

Now I simply cannot understand how she could have been so permissive. I barely want my son to leave the house on a play-date, let alone start sleeping around while barely out of junior school.

A good mother is attentive, sets boundaries and makes the world safe for her child. But my mother did none of those things.

Although I was on the Pill  –  something I had arranged at 13, visiting the doctor with my best friend  –  I fell pregnant at 14. I organised an abortion myself. Now I shudder at the memory. I was only a little girl. I don’t remember my mother being shocked or upset. She tried to be supportive, accompanying me with her boyfriend.

Although I believe that an abortion was the right decision for me then, the aftermath haunted me for decades. It ate away at my self-confidence and, until I had Tenzin, I was terrified that I’d never be able to have a baby because of what I had done to the child I had destroyed. For feminists to say that abortion carries no consequences is simply wrong.

[…]

I know many women are shocked by my views. They expect the daughter of Alice Walker to deliver a very different message. Yes, feminism has undoubtedly given women opportunities. It’s helped open the doors for us at schools, universities and in the workplace. But what about the problems it’s caused for my contemporaries?

The ease with which people can get divorced these days doesn’t take into account the toll on children. That’s all part of the unfinished business of feminism.

Then there is the issue of not having children. Even now, I meet women in their 30s who are ambivalent about having a family. They say things like: ‘I’d like a child. If it happens, it happens.’ I tell them: ‘Go home and get on with it because your window of opportunity is very small.’ As I know only too well.

Then I meet women in their 40s who are devastated because they spent two decades working on a PhD or becoming a partner in a law firm, and they missed out on having a family. Thanks to the feminist movement, they discounted their biological clocks. They’ve missed the opportunity and they’re bereft.

Feminism has betrayed an entire generation of women into childlessness. It is devastating.

[h/t Michelle Malkin]

With friends like these…

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I don’t get it:

The vice-chairman of the British All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group (APPPLG), told the House of Commons yesterday that she is pro-abortion, but wishes women would choose life.

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Tanya gets it: I hear it all the time, just like Mrs. Claire Curtis-Thomas says…

 

“I believe that women should have the right to choose; I just hope that they do not choose to have an abortion.”

 

It’s all the same, to me, as making abortion ‘legal, safe, and rare.’ (That Clinton mantra.)

 

It’s being uncomfortable with abortion yet attempting to stay within the realm of political correctness. Honestly, politicians (and citizens) like that get nothing of lasting value accomplished.

 

Trying to lift the mood…

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I know the news out of the UK isn’t uplifting today. That human-animal hybrid thing is certainly bad – though in many ways, not surprising. So I thought I’d go looking for fun stories to act, you know, as counterbalance. I’m afraid I was only mildly successful…

The Merry Wives Cafe, located in Hilldale, Utah, is owned and operated by polygamist group members with a sense of business, humor and public relations. The cafe opened last year to give locals and travelers a place to eat. The owners also opened it as a way to gently confront polygamy’s battered image. It is not immediately obvious that the cafe has any connection to polygamy, though to sharp diners, there are clues.

“We’re not trying to shove [polygamy] in people’s faces,” says manager Cherise Dutson. “But, this is how we live, and it’s our heritage.”

Diners looking closely at the decades-old family portraits on the café walls will notice a common theme: a single patriarch, multiple wives and multitudes of kids.

And then there’s the café’s name and logo. “The Merry Wives” is borrowed from Shakespeare, and the logo depicts three cooks, all women and, presumably, plural wives.

[h/t iMAPP]

Giving your eggs, altruistically

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Sorry, I know it’s harsh to get up in the morning and to be confronted with this sort of news story. The French government is launching what they call a “solidarity campaign” (story in French) to encourage women to give their eggs (anonymously) so infertile couples can have a shot at parenthood.

I’m all for family and children, but I’ve never been a fan of assisted reproduction. Mostly because I don’t think it’s a good idea to force Mother Nature into something she doesn’t want to do. I realize there is a lot of pain and anguish involved when two people realize they are infertile, and I also understand that the desire to have at least one child can be quite overwhelming. I can see why someone would want to undergo fertility treatment and improve her chances to conceive. But asking other women to contribute their own eggs is something else entirely. I know I wouldn’t do it; these are my eggs and any children resulting from same would be mine, regardless of how many layers of Cartesian “logic” I applied to convince myself they’re not.

This isn’t solidarity. It’s more like Brave New World and it creeps me out.

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Rebecca adds: The article hints at the real problems here (it’s not a shortage of women willing to go through the physical pain, medical risk and moral conundrums of anonymous egg donation) but doesn’t pursue it, probably because being judgemental is in even worse taste on the Continent than it is here. Luckily, I have no such reservations.

The reality is that female fertility starts to decline in one’s late 20s. As Sylvia Hewlett wrote in Creating a Life, this isn’t about fairness or equality, it’s biological reality. The French restrictions on ART for women over 37 may seem unfair to a 40 year old who wants medical help to conceive, but they’re based in that reality – with or without artificial means, at that age women are less likely to get pregnant, less likely to carry a fetus to term and deliver free of complications, less likely to have healthy and normal pregnancies.

Europeans are becoming famous for their low birthrates, and for delaying not only motherhood but also marriage and moving out of the parental home. The solution isn’t to conscript the ovaries of strangers, it’s to reassert the importance of family within French culture.

How much you wanna bet…

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… that this isn’t going to turn out to be “good for women” after all?

OTTAWA – The emergency contraceptive pill Plan B will now be sold on the front shelves of Canadian pharmacies without any medical consultation after a landmark decision came down Thursday to make the drug more accessible.

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Andrea adds: Oh but Brigitte, clearly you missed the nightly news. It’s 95 per cent effective! says the broadcaster, who clearly did not have time to do anything other than rewrite the pharmaceutical company’s press release.  

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Tanya explains: This was a smart move, right?  On http://www.drugs.com, on levonorgestrel (AKA Plan B) they give the following directives:

“Use levonorgestrel exactly as directed by your doctor. If you do not understand these directions, ask your pharmacist, nurse, or doctor to explain them to you…

 

“Talk to your doctor and pharmacist before taking any prescription or over-the-counter medicines, including vitamins, minerals, and herbal products, while using levonorgestrel.”

 

Now that no one is required to consult either a doctor, pharmacist, or nurse, I’m sure every 15 year old scared stiff of being pregnant will have self-discipline to do so. 

 

My favorite find, on HealthyOntario.com has to be:

 

“It can be harmful for people to take this medication if their doctor has not prescribed it.”

 

The big inconvenience here, I suppose, is that HealthyOntario.com will have to update its site to reflect NAPRA’s “landmark decision.”

 

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Véronique says: You know, this says a lot about the pro-abortion (or anti-children) culture our previous post was touching on. Here, we see that unplanned pregnancy is is to be avoided at such a cost that we are willing to forgo proper medical follow-up to ensure that no unplanned pregnancy goes “unadressed.” This move is so obviously anti-woman it should make feminists want to burn their bras all over again. What this decision tells women is: “we don’t care how sick you get taking Plan B, just as long as you remain sexually available and barren.”

 

This make me sick. Plan B side-effect sick.

 

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Rebecca does the math: 95% effective means 1 in 20 of the women who take this – without advice from a doctor or pharmacist, and therefore without any follow-up by a medical professional – will continue to be pregnant after taking Plan B.  How many of these women will assume the drug “worked”, or avoid taking another pregnancy test out of sheer denial and wishful thinking, and thereby go without the medical care that they need? What are the effects on the fetus of taking Plan B if it doesn’t work, does anybody know? Are we going to have a wave of women and babies harmed by Plan B and its side-effects a year or two down the road?

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Tanya attempts to answer Rebecca’s question:

Even if the “morning-after pill” fails and a woman becomes pregnant, there is no increased risk to the health of the mother or baby, research suggests…

In studying the newborns… researchers did not find significant differences in the length or weight of these babies… Additionally, there wasn’t any increased risk to the “exposed” babies of having malformations.

The study authors note that since failure of the “morning-after pill” doesn’t appear to negatively affect the fetus, mothers pregnant with exposed babies shouldn’t opt for an abortion because they fear for the baby’s health.

These conclusions based on a study involving 116 women, 36 of whom used “Plan B.” Not exactly exhaustive or very large in scale.

Ken Epp writes

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In the Ottawa Citizen this morning. Bottom line: “To oppose this bill is to stand in defence of only those pregnant women who choose abortion.”

Well, maybe not quite. To maintain that the current legal system is enough to deal with these situations is not entirely illogical. Certainly it’s possible to have a reasonable debate on C-484, or some aspects thereof, without getting into an unproductive shouting match. Or it should be; no legislation is perfect, after all. But loud and brittle (not to mention untruthful) opposition to anything that might, perhaps, in the future some day, contribute to the possibility of someone potentially questioning the validity and moral soundness of today’s anything-goes pro-abortion legal system sure isn’t helping.

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Andrea adds: The same article also quotes an opponent of Bill C-484 who says this:

If the fetuses are recognized in this bill, it could bleed into people’s consciousness and make people change their minds about abortion.

A total and complete moratorium on intelligent thought is the last defence of the ardent abortion supporter. God forbid that people think about this issue and change their minds. That “bleeding into your consciousness” is otherwise called thinking, reflecting, casting a second look at a topic and doing so, in normal circles, is considered wise and good. Good grief–give your head a shake–if Bill C-484 is that threatening, perhaps this pro-abortion status quo is on shakier ground than I previously thought.

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Rebecca adds: You know, if ever you find yourself hoping to conceal facts and preempt arguments to prevent people from changing their minds, you really ought to accept that you’re imposing your decisions on other people, and have explicitly abandoned “Truth” in any sense that is meaningful.

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Tanya adds: “We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?”

– Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

About “normal” parenting

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Interesting what Véronique says about how your 24 hours belong to you. I admit I’m still at the “criticizing others for their obvious failings” stage, but I take her point. I don’t know how I would cope with several children wanting to do several activities in several places. Probably not very well.

I’ve been thinking about “normal” parenting a lot lately. I’m reading a surprisingly interesting biography of Prince Charles (don’t ask) that was published before his marriage to Diana (ditto) and his family had a lot of trouble giving him as much of a “normal” upbringing as they could (one of Her Majesty’s least noticed virtues is that she has always been ahead of her time, and so has her first-born son; he got heavily into organic farming and sustainable development well before these things became popular). His situation was anything but normal and yet his parents struggled to give him a taste of the kind of life normal Britons lead. He always had to deal with journalists and photographers anywhere he went, and he spent his school years with a full-time detective in tow, but he did manage to go to school – the first Prince of Wales to do so.

How do you know whether what you’re doing is right? Is following your gut enough? I don’t know. It’s a lot easier to criticize other people…

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Tanya adds: Agreed. I was a great parent, and I knew it all, until I had one of my own. I used to see badly behaved children everywhere I went. I hardly see any so terrible anymore.

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Véronique asks: Who said: “At the onset of my career (I think it was a child psychologist), I had no kids and 12 principles. Now, I have 12 kids and no principles.” ?

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