Senate Republicans stretch Sherrod Brown’s comments on gender-affirming care

As part of a series of ads focusing on transgender issues, the leading political action committee for Senate Republicans attacked Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown over his stance on gender-affirming care for minors.

Brown, who has held his Senate seat since 2007 and broadly supported LGBTQ+ rights throughout his career, is running against Republican businessman Bernie Moreno in a hotly contested swing state contest.

In a TV ad, the Senate Leadership Fund described President Joe Biden as having "an extreme liberal agenda" that Brown supports. 

"Brown backed Biden, voting to let biological transgender men participate in women's sports and supported allowing puberty blocker and sex-change surgeries for minors," the ad’s narrator said.

We already checked the Senate Leadership Fund’s claims about Brown’s votes on transgender athletes, finding the claim False. The claim about gender-affirming care for minors is more complex.

The ad cited a July 19, 2023, interview Brown gave to WSYX-TV in Columbus, Ohio.

We couldn’t find the full interview. The Senate Leadership Fund supplied a closed-caption transcript of the news segment, in which a reporter asked Brown about legislation from Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, that aimed to ban gender-affirming care for minors.

S. 2357, the "Protect Children’s Innocence Act," sought to make it a felony for doctors to provide surgery or prescribe puberty blockers to anyone younger than 18.   

"A child's health care decisions are between them, their parents, their families and their doctors," Brown said, according to an archived snippet of the interview. "Not politicians. I will never agree with anyone that wants to bring politics into the family situation with health care. Period."

Vance’s bill — which would have established punishment for doctors performing the procedures — was referred to a committee. It never received a vote.

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When PolitiFact asked Brown’s campaign whether Brown supports doctors providing gender-reassignment surgery and puberty blockers to minors, spokesperson Matt Keyes responded broadly. 

"Sherrod cares about the health and well-being of all children. He does not believe the government has any role in a family's personal healthcare decisions," Keyes said.

Brown has long supported policies advocated by LGBTQ+ rights activists, including marriage equality. In 2017, he introduced the Senate’s first Pride Month Resolution. Human Rights Campaign,the LGBTQ+ civil rights group, has  endorsed him. But Brown has said relatively little specific to gender-affirming care for minors, though has generally said he supports allowing patients to make decisions with their doctors.

The Senate Leadership Fund also pointed us to a March 31, 2023, letter Brown and eight other Democratic senators signed that asked the Biden administration to use executive action on several policies to ensure LGBTQ+ people’s access to health care. The letter noted that several states had enacted legislation "to restrict access to gender affirming care for minors" and asked President Joe Biden to allow Medicaid to cover expenses for patients traveling or moving to obtain gender-affirming care. 

Gender-affirming care is an individualized health care model that prioritizes encouraging and supporting a person’s gender identity — it  is more than puberty blockers and surgery. The World Health Organization defines it as "any single or combination of a number of social, psychological behavioural or medical (including hormonal treatment or surgery) interventions designed to support and affirm an individual's gender identity."

Before puberty, this care includes things such as using the name and pronouns that align with a child’s gender identity. At older ages, it can include evidence-based medical treatments such as puberty blockers or hormone therapies. Gender-affirming surgical procedures are not commonly recommended for or provided to minors.

Gender-affirming surgery is very rare among minors in the United States.

The Senate Leadership Fund said in an ad that Brown "supported allowing puberty blockers and sex-change surgeries for minor children."

The ad cited a local TV news interview Brown gave about a bill that would have banned gender-affirming care of all kinds. In the interview, Brown did not specifically address support for "puberty blockers and sex-change surgeries for minor children." He said only that he does not support the government intervening in personal health care decisions.

In 2023, Brown signed a letter urging the Biden administration to broadly protect access to gender-affirming care. Gender affirming care is any kind of health care that prioritizes support for a person’s gender identity. It is not limited to surgery and puberty blockers; and surgery is rare among minors. 

We rate the claim Mostly False.

RELATED: Republican super PAC twists Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown's votes on transgender athletes