Global Courant
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was pressed Wednesday for comment on the United Kingdom’s decision to ban puberty blockers for minors, despite President Biden’s claim that U.S. lawmakers pushing for such bans are “hysterical and were “biased”.
Biden made the remarks on June 8 during a joint White House press conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the first person of color to be elected British Prime Minister, stating that his administration “will not budge” on ensuring that LGBTQ Americans were “protected”.
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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks at a daily news briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on June 14, 2023 in Washington, DC.
“When the president made those remarks, he stood with the prime minister of the United Kingdom, and then the United Kingdom announced that in most cases they would ban puberty blockers for minors. Will the president raise this human rights issue with his British counterpart?” RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann asked Jean-Pierre during the daily White House press briefing.
“I haven’t seen those comments, so I can’t respond directly to that. And I just don’t go beyond what the president said in those conversations,” Jean-Pierre responded.
Wegmann also asked if the Biden administration planned to withhold Medicare funds or other federal health care dollars from states that passed similar laws, but she said she “had nothing to add.”
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President Joe Biden listens as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks at a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Thursday, June 8. (AP/Susan Walsh)
The Biden administration previously considered withholding Medicare and other funds in an effort to force Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The UK’s National Health Service said last week it would not routinely offer puberty-suppressing drugs to children in gender identity clinics, saying more evidence is needed on the potential benefits and harms.
It specifically said that “outside of a research setting, puberty-suppressing hormones should not be put into routine use in children and adolescents.”
President Joe Biden listens to a question during a bilateral press conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, not pictured, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on Thursday, June 8, 2023. (Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Brandon Gillespie is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @brandon_cg.
