Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed defended sex-change procedures for minors at a Friday rally at Michigan State University, arguing that medical decisions should rest with patients, their parents, and their doctors rather than the government.
Responding to a student's question about protecting such procedures, El-Sayed, a former Detroit Health Department director, touted his medical training. «I went to a whole a-- medical school, everybody I graduated with also went to whole a-- medical school,» he said, adding that his classmates completed «whole a-- residency» and «whole a-- exams to provide whole a-- healthcare.» He described such physicians as «the experts that a patient wants to see when they seek care.»
El-Sayed has made his identity as a physician a centerpiece of his campaign, saying that if elected he would be the first doctor to serve as a Democratic senator in 50 years. However, he has never held a medical license in Michigan or New York, according to previous reporting.
At the rally, El-Sayed framed the issue as a matter of clinical autonomy. «The decision about what healthcare is necessary ought to be held between a patient — and or their parents if they're under the age of 18 — and their doctor. That's it,» he said. He added that «the government gets to have a say about what health care is provided in what circumstances and why» is not the standard he supports.
He argued that conservatives should agree with him, pointing to the Right to Try Act, which allows terminally ill patients to try experimental treatments not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration. «They agree that the decision about healthcare ought to be between the person and their provider,» El-Sayed said. «So let's use that standard, and keep to that standard, and make sure the government doesn't have the ability to tell you what you can or cannot do with your own life.»
The remarks come as the Trump administration has moved to restrict minors' access to what it calls «sex-rejecting» procedures, including hormone therapy and surgeries. Earlier this week, the Justice Department announced that Mount Sinai had joined other hospitals, such as Texas Children's Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and Connecticut Children's Hospital, in halting such procedures for children after reaching agreements with the administration. Medicaid has also ended funding for child sex-change procedures.
El-Sayed's campaign has centered on Medicare for All, a government-run healthcare plan. He said that even with the government covering the bill, it should stay out of doctors' treatment decisions. «I don't think the government gets to have a say about what health care is provided in what circumstances and why,» he said. «And to me, that is the standard on which we decide how we make health care decisions.»
He also addressed what he called disinformation about reproductive rights and healthcare for transgender people. «The place where the rubber meets the rope is in that clinical room between a patient and a provider, and that to me is the center we should engage on,» he said.
The debate over such treatments continues amid limited research on their efficacy. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, whose guidelines are used by leading medical associations, faces a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission alleging that its guidelines misled parents about the «medical consensus and medical necessity, as well as the safety and effectiveness» of sex-change procedures. The FTC has accused WPATH of failing to disclose side effects such as incontinence, erectile pain, mood disturbances, pelvic pain, and vaginal pain associated with «cross-sex» hormones.
Other countries with socialized medicine have imposed restrictions. In England, the National Health Service paused «cross-sex» hormones for 16- and 17-year-olds in March after finding the research «really weak» to support it. The country already banned such hormones for children under 16.
El-Sayed's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding his medical credentials.