West
Montana to probe nation's leading pediatrics group for claim puberty blockers are 'reversible'
FIRST ON FOX: Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is launching an investigation into a leading pediatrics organization over its “gender-affirming” care policy statement that claims treating children with puberty blockers is reversible.
The civil investigative demand (CID) comes a little over a month since attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Utah sent a letter to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), accusing the organization of abandoning “its commitment to sound medical judgment.”
“Puberty blockers can have serious and irreversible consequences for children, but AAP appears to ignore those consequences and instead promotes them as ‘reversible’. That’s unacceptable and could be a violation of Montana law,” Knudsen told Fox News Digital in a statement.
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“The information AAP provides must be accurate and based in scientific fact as parents and medical professionals rely on them for guidance in making healthcare decisions for children,” the AG added.
The 2018 AAP policy states that “Gonadotrophin-releasing hormones have been used to delay puberty since the 1980s for central precocious puberty.”
“These reversible treatments can also be used in adolescents who experience gender dysphoria to prevent development of secondary sex characteristics and provide time up until 16 years of age for the individual and the family to explore gender identity, access psychosocial supports, develop coping skills, and further define appropriate treatment goals,” the statement reads.
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues are the most widely used class of drugs for puberty blocking. Regular use of these puberty blockers prevents the body from producing testosterone and estrogen.
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Among the demands in the CID, Knudsen seeks all documents related to the AAP’s 2018 Policy Statement on transgender medical care, including communications regarding its impact on AAP products. The office is also asking for records connected to the pause on the publication of “Pediatric Collections: Gender-Affirming Care,” pending a review of the 2018 policy.
Additionally, Knudsen is seeking details about the review process for the 2018 policy, including the individuals involved. The investigation seeks to clarify the AAP’s decision-making processes and its interactions with stakeholders regarding input on policy reviews.
The AAP will also be required to respond to a September letter from attorneys general across the country that called on the organization to rescind its support for transgender medical care – such as puberty blockers and surgeries – on children.
Last year, the AAP recommitted its pledge to support so-called “gender-affirming care” and expanded its guidelines for pediatricians to “ensure young people get the reproductive and gender-affirming care they need and are seen, heard and valued as they are,” AAP CEO Mark Del Monte said at the time.
“The AAP opposes any laws or regulations that discriminate against transgender and gender-diverse individuals, or that interfere in the doctor-patient relationship,” the AAP wrote in a news release.
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AAP has published several reports on reaffirming transgender youth in their preferred gender identities. In January, the AAP published a report titled, “Prohibition of Gender-Affirming Care as a Form of Child Maltreatment: Reframing the Discussion,” which claimed many bills aimed at restricting transgender treatments for children lead to poor mental health.
The AAP, along with prominent medical organizations such as the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the World Health Organization, advocates for providing transgender treatments to minors.
Knudsen’s letter comes as transgender surgical procedures and hormone treatments for children has become a culture war issue in the 2024 election. According to unsealed documents published over the summer, health officials in the Biden administration successfully pressured the World Professional Association for Transgender Health to omit the age limit in its guidelines for transgender surgical procedures for adolescents.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the AAP for comment.
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Arizona
Ruben Gallego, Kari Lake largely quiet as Arizona’s US Senate race tightens
An unusual and prolonged silence hung over Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, where Democrat Ruben Gallego holds to a shrunken lead over Republican Kari Lake on Nov. 6, with hundreds of thousands more votes to count.
Gallego, a five-term member of Congress and the favorite to win the contest entering the election hasn’t posted on social media since a tweet election night thanking poll workers for their service.
Lake, a former Fox 10 newscaster who cut into his polling lead in the final weeks of the race, urged her followers the morning after Election Day to ensure their provisional ballots are counted.
“This race is going to go down to the wire!” Lake tweeted. “We need ALL HANDS ON DECK to cure ballots and ensure the vote of every Arizonan counts.”
That could matter in her race if the results continue moving in Lake’s direction, as happened throughout the night as the counting continued.
In 2022, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes won her race with the votes that she picked up from provisional ballots. That race, which she won by 280 votes, was the closest statewide race in Arizona history.
Lake has also repeatedly noted President-elect Donald Trump’s victory and pointed to complaints about the pace of vote counting in Maricopa County in a handful of tweets.
Gallego’s lead, which once stood at about 120,000 votes based on unofficial results on election night stood at fewer than 60,000 votes the next morning. An estimated 40% of the state’s votes remained to be tallied.
“We are closely watching as results come in, and we’re feeling very optimistic,” Gallego said in a tweet. He thanked his supporters for their efforts.
There is at least one major tranche of votes from Election Day in Maricopa County and a much smaller batch like that in Pima County that is expected to skew heavily for Republicans.
There are also sizable numbers of Democratic-leaning early ballots that were dropped off on Monday or Tuesday in those counties that could match or exceed the number of likely red votes left.
Elsewhere, there are pockets of smaller, GOP-leaning counties with votes to count, but one of the counties with the heaviest share of ballots still to come is smallish, but Democratic-friendly Apache County.
Whoever wins succeeds retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., who quit the race in March.
The uncertainty in Arizona comes as Republicans have already clinched narrow control of the Senate in January with victories in West Virginia and Ohio.
Democrats hold a 51-49 advantage in the Senate for now with independents such as Sinema who caucus with that party.
So far, Republicans have won at least 51 seats, plus Trump’s victory means vice-president-elect JD Vance will become the tie-breaking vote once he is sworn into his new position.
If Lake loses, it won’t be a mystery why.
Though she often cast herself as “Trump in heels” and had his endorsement from the night she first entered the race, Lake had the biggest vote gap between a U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona and Trump’s total in his three presidential campaigns.
Based on unofficial results through the morning of Nov. 6, Lake had about 91% of the votes Trump had received. The number of votes cast in both races is 99% the same, but Gallego has pulled in nearly 60,000 more votes than Vice President Kamala Harris has.
In 2016, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pulled in 9% more votes than Trump. In 2020, U.S. Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., received 99% of Trump’s vote total.
Four other Senate races remain undecided and will settle the GOP’s final margin in the chamber.
In Pennsylvania, Republican challenger Dave McCormick led U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., by about 49,000 votes with about 95% of the votes counted, according to results tracked by the New York Times.
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., led former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., in that state by less than 8,000 votes with about 95% of votes counted.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., led Republican challenger Eric Hovde by about 29,000 votes with 95% of the votes counted.
And Republican challenger Sam Brown led U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., by less than 1,000 votes with 84% of the votes counted.
California
California DA Pamela Price recalled over 'progressive leftist' crime policies
Alameda County, California, District Attorney Pamela Price was recalled early Wednesday, less than two years after taking office, following backlash for her alleged soft-on-crime approach.
The effort was backed by the recall committee Save Alameda for Everyone (SAFE), and passed with 64.8% of the vote, according to polling results from the county of Alameda. The committee includes former Alameda County prosecutors, county residents, community activists, and crime victims and victims’ families, according to the committee’s website.
“It’s been a long, hard 18 months, and we’re hoping to see it turn around for all of the victims,” Brenda Grisham, principal officer for SAFE, told Fox News Digital. “And we’re not just talking about laws that are out there, but she came into office and implemented her own laws, and they were just not conducive and safe for the citizens of Alameda County.”
ALAMEDA COUNTY DA PAMELA PRICE FACING RECALL AS SPECIAL ELECTION LOOMS: THE ‘PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN’
“They spoke their mind yesterday, and I’m so excited,” Grisham said.
“We are thankful to the voters of Oakland for recalling Sheng Thao and to Alameda County for recalling Pamela Price,” Oakland Police Officers Association President Huy Nguyen said in a statement. “Voters recognized their progressive leftist policies directly harmed and impacted residents, neighborhoods, working and middle class families, and small businesses.”
The group filed the necessary paperwork to begin fundraising for the effort in July 2023. The recall effort had acquired nearly 75,000 validated signatures by May of this year, according to the New York Post.
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors set a recall election date of Nov. 5 in May.
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao was also ousted from office after her recall effort passed with 65% of the vote.
NATHAN HOCHMAN OUSTS EMBATTLED LIBERAL PROSECUTOR GEORGE GASCÓN AS LA COUNTY DA AMID CRIME CONCERNS
Several Alameda County families had spoken out against Price in the months leading up to her recall vote.
Florance McCrary, whose 22-year-old son was shot and killed by a stray bullet in 2016, became a vocal advocate in calling for Price’s removal after she abruptly dropped the murder charge of her son’s alleged killer last year.
“I was in total shock,” McCrary told Fox and Friends co-host Pete Hegseth. “It was unbelievable to realize that for the fight that took over six years to get to that, it was diminished to nothing. And while sitting there in court, learning even from the judge, well, this is the best we can do.”
“There are still so many more ballots to be counted, and in areas that I know we did well in getting our message out,” Price said in a statement released. “The Registrar of Voters estimates that it still has hundreds of thousands of ballots to count. The next update will be issued later this week. I am optimistic that when all the votes are counted, we will be able to continue the hard work of transforming our criminal justice system.”
California Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell also came out in support of the recall vote, holding a press conference in October where he argued Price had failed victims of violent crime, according to KTVU.
PROPOSITION 36 OVERWHELMINGLY PASSES IN CALIFORNIA, REVERSING SOME SOROS-BACKED SOFT-ON-CRIME POLICIES
“The cops catch, and Price releases,” Swalwell said.
Swalwell also reportedly filed a defamatory claim against Price this week, claiming Price had made defamatory statements at a news conference a few weeks prior wherein she said that Swalwell wanted to recall her to “shield himself from unethical practices” that occurred while he was serving as a deputy district attorney, according to KTVU.
“Pamela Price leaves me no choice but to file this claim against her for her deliberate and untrue statements,” Swalwell said in a statement to the outlet.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Swalwell’s office for additional comment.
Fox News Digital’s Bailee Hill contributed to this report.
Colorado
More snow coming heading into the weekend for Colorado and Denver
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