Free Republic

A growing number of countries, including some of the most progressive in Europe, are rejecting the U.S. “gender-affirming” model of care for transgender-identified youth. These countries have adopted a far more restrictive and cautious approach, one that prioritizes psychotherapy and reserves hormonal interventions for extreme cases. In stark contrast to groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which urges clinicians to “affirm” their patient’s identity irrespective of circumstance and regards alternatives to an affirm-early/affirm-only approach “conversion therapy,” European health authorities are recommending exploratory therapy to discern why teens are rejecting their bodies and whether less invasive treatments may help....

The U.S. is an “outlier” among Western nations in providing body-altering drugs and surgery to children who identify as transgender, as concern grows in the scientific community about the results of such treatments. Described by many Democratic politicians as “gender-affirming care” for “trans kids,” puberty-blocking drugs and sex reassignment surgeries at a young age may not reduce psychological distress, and may have long-term and irreversible consequences that children cannot factor into their decision-making at a young age. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday: The U.S. is becoming an outlier among many Western nations in the way its national medical institutions...

According to the WSJ, Memoli supports vaccination among the elderly and at-risk, as well as the childhood vaccinations that have been commonplace for decades. However, he takes issue with the widespread use of COVID-19 vaccines for the population at large and that “with existing vaccines, blanket vaccination of people at low risk of severe illness could hamper the development of more-robust immunity gained across a population from infection.” The WSJ notes that Memoli’s views make him an “outlier” in the medical community and at the NIH as well as among federal employees, 88% of whom are currently vaccinated. He has...

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has surged to a 15-point lead over reeling, gaffe-plagued Republican Donald Trump, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll. Clinton made strong gains with two constituencies crucial to a Republican victory – whites and men – while scoring important gains among fellow Democrats, the poll found. Clinton not only went up, but Trump also went down. Clinton now has a 48-33 percent lead, a huge turnaround from her narrow 42-39 advantage last month. The findings are particularly significant because the poll was taken after both political conventions ended and as Trump engaged in a war of...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10 (see trends).

Despite money and ads, poll shows O'Donnell still badly trails Coons in Delaware Senate race BEN EVANS Associated Press 10:35 a.m. CDT, October 28, 2010 The survey released Thursday by Fairleigh Dickinson University-PublicMind shows Coons holding a commanding lead of 21 points, with 57 percent of likely voters saying they will vote for Coons compared to just 36 percent for O'Donnell.

With all of the consternation about religion in this country, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of just how anomalous our religiosity is in the world. Gallup report issued on Tuesday underscored just how out of line we are. Gallup surveyed people in more than 100 countries in 2009 and found that religiosity was highly correlated to poverty. Richer countries in general are less religious. But that doesn’t hold true for the United States. Sixty-five percent of Americans say that religion is an important part of their daily lives. That is compared with just 30 percent of the French, 27...

South Carolina Likely Republican Primary Voters Dec 06 Feb 07 Apr 07 May 07 Jun 07 Jul 07 Aug 07 Sep 07 Brownback - - 1% 1% 1% - 2% 1% Gilmore - 1% 1% 1% 1% ni ni ni Gingrich 15% 10% 6% 6% 6% 7% 6% 7% Giuliani 28% 29% 23% 23% 22% 28% 26% 23% Hagel - - 1% - - ni ni ni Huckabee 1% 1% 2% 1% 3% 3% 9% 1% Hunter - 1% - 1% 2% 1% - 1% Keyes ni ni ni ni ni ni ni - McCain 35% 35% 36% 32%...