Palmer: The Supreme Court should uphold the rights of Tennessee, Alabama, and the other states that are taking action to protect our children.

For Immediate Release

Media Contact: Hope Dawson (202) 225-4921

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments for United States of America v. Skrmetti.Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06) spoke outside the Court to advocate for the protection of our children against the radical left agenda.

Watch the Congressman’s remarks by clicking here.

PALMER: “Good morning.

 I stand here today not just as a Congressman from the great state of Alabama, but also as a father… The case before the Court, United States of America v. Skrmetti, is about far more than a legal debate over Tennessee’s law. It is about whether states retain the right to protect children from irreversible harm. 

Alabama has been at the forefront of this fight. Our state enacted a similar law in 2022, and while it was initially challenged in the courts, the Eleventh Circuit reversed the lower court’s decision, allowing Alabama to continue safeguarding our children. Our experience laid the groundwork for Tennessee’s law, and today we stand united with them and 25 other states determined to protect vulnerable youth from becoming casualties of unproven medical experiments.

The evidence against these treatments is mounting. A 2022 report commissioned by the Swedish government, for example, concluded that 'scientific basis is not sufficient' to continue to conduct hormone treatments on children without further research. This is Sweeden. 

On October 23, 2024, the New York Times reported that the results from an ongoing, ‘multimillion-dollar federal project on transgender youth’ have been buried because of political considerations. That’s a study by the National Institutes of Health that your taxpayer dollars paid for. Despite reportedly finding that using puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoric adolescents ‘did not lead to mental health improvements,’ Dr. Olson-Kennedy—the leader of the research team—chose not to publish the findings because she said she was concerned the study results could be used in court to argue that ‘we shouldn’t use blockers’ in minors. She made this decision despite also finding a remarkably high suicide rate among children who received these treatments. Last month, I led a letter demanding the release of the report.

It’s interesting that the National Institutes of Health refuses to release the findings while this is being litigated in our courts. That proves that this is not about the children, it is about a left-wing agenda. I am, once again, calling on Director Monica Bertagnolli to release the full report to the public. 

I want to quote someone, Mikael Landén, a professor and chief physician at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden who was a co-author of the Swedish report, wrote in an email, ‘Health care should not provide interventions that we do not know to be safe and beneficial.’ He added, ‘From the lack of evidence follows that a conservative approach is warranted.’ I completely agree. The Supreme Court should as well and uphold the rights of Tennessee, Alabama, and the other 25 states that are taking action to protect our children. God bless you and thank you.”

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