OPINION:
Being carefully herded into compliance with government and medical association dictates is nothing new, but recent activities on the part of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggest a more aggressive targeting of our children with medically dubious prescriptions.
This past week, AAP revealed that it wants parents to consider drugs, therapy and surgery to deal with childhood obesity. Overweight young people are a legitimate national crisis, with nearly 20% of American children ages 2-19 considered obese. But AAP’s emphasis on aggressive medical intervention shows a troubling pattern of behavior.
To the left in America, obesity couldn’t possibly have that much to do with the fact that children are addicted to screens or that decades ago, government nutritionists recommended a shift to more carbs. It couldn’t possibly be tied to more two-income families that produce more disengaged parents, or media that has scared people to the point they barely let their children play outside anymore.
It is certainly true that for a small subset of overweight children, legitimate physiological and medical conditions are the cause of the condition. Those children are the exception, however, not the rule.
AAP wants us to believe, though, that it’s some giant scientific coincidence that nearly all of their recommendations mean parents have to shell out money for doctors, surgeons, therapists, and Big Pharma drugs.
AAP’s position appears to be part of our “new health care” that emphasizes wonder drugs, psychotherapy and invasive procedures while de-emphasizing personal responsibility. It’s almost as if they want parents to just get used to the idea of their kid on pills or going in for surgery to fix a problem.
That seems to go hand in glove with the transgender craze, also being pushed by AAP, which gets its funding from some of the biggest donors to the American far left. Apparently, another incredible coincidence.
Britain’s National Health Service recently closed its transgender clinic for children, opting to focus instead on better mental health services. It recognized the high rate of autism seen in trans children. The NHS acknowledged that it had rushed children into drug-induced and surgical transitions. The NHS also released findings in 2022 of “evidence that in most cases gender incongruence does not persist into adolescence.” They called it a “transient phase.”
Not here. Not for the Biden White House or the American Academy of Pediatrics. They’re all in on puberty blockers, sex reassignment surgery and what the left euphemistically calls “gender-affirming care.” So entrenched are they that they even refused to allow doctors and scientists who hold opposing viewpoints into a forum at their recent annual conference. There’s the left’s censorship again.
According to its own website, two of AAP’s biggest funders as of 2021 were the left-wing Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Both organizations have spent millions promoting abortion, including funding for Planned Parenthood and, in the case of Packard, money to produce the abortion pill RU-486. The Packard Foundation, which recently jumped on the left’s “equity” bandwagon, has openly pushed population control methods going back to the 1960s. Both groups also spend massive sums on promoting climate change hysteria that is needlessly fueling anxiety among young people.
The Gates fund spent millions on political activity to push the contentious Common Core curriculum in schools. It contributed in excess of $100 million to the New Venture Fund, a leftist dark money group, during the 2020 election cycle.
AAP’s connection to significant left-wing donors should make every parent and physician question whether the organization is focused on medical science or political science.
AAP’s approach echoes the American Medical Association’s support of the Affordable Care Act and other leftist policies. The devastating impact of Obamacare is widely considered a major contributing factor to the nation’s impending doctor shortage of as many as 139,000 physicians by 2033.
The AMA’s political activity has fortunately contributed to a precipitous decline in membership among active physicians for years. AAP should suffer the same drop in credibility among practitioners and patients alike.
The politicization of these once-trusted institutions means that, like so many other venerable organizations and brands, the public must look for alternatives.
The corrosive interplay between left-wing social engineers and pediatrics is poised to leave significant harm in its wake. Parents need to take greater responsibility for their child’s health and well-being using common sense rather than compromised science.
Personal responsibility to improve eating habits and increase physical activity will get children in shape, not more pills and more psychotherapy. Spiritual nutrition would help, too.
“Do no harm” is the first rule of medicine. Government and groups like the AAP simply can’t be trusted to fulfill that sacred oath.
• Tom Basile is the host of “America Right Now” on Newsmax TV, an author and a former Bush administration official.
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