Bodily Autonomy for Every Body

Following the Minister Liz Truss's statement to the Women and Equalities Committee stating her plan to "make sure that the under‑18s are protected from decisions that they could make that are irreversible", we are calling on MPs to take action.

We believe this to be a dogwhistle around the rolling back of trans healthcare for under-18s, specifically hormone replacement therapy and puberty blockers.

This is an issue of human rights, and of bodily autonomy and integrity. If we allow trans young people to be stripped of their agency to make decisions around their healthcare, next on the chopping ...

Following the Minister Liz Truss's statement to the Women and Equalities Committee stating her plan to "make sure that the under‑18s are protected from decisions that they could make that are irreversible", we are calling on MPs to take action.

We believe this to be a dogwhistle around the rolling back of trans healthcare for under-18s, specifically hormone replacement therapy and puberty blockers.

This is an issue of human rights, and of bodily autonomy and integrity. If we allow trans young people to be stripped of their agency to make decisions around their healthcare, next on the chopping block will be wider rights around access to abortion and contraception.

A loss to trans youth is a loss for all.

Tell your MP why the concepts of bodily autonomy and Gillick Competence are so important in a human rights framework. Either we have bodily autonomy for every body or we have it for none.

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Email your MP

Telling your MP directly about what's going on is the best way to ensure they're in the loop. The more they hear from the community, and the more they hear about trans experiences in general, the likelier is it we will ensure we keep our hard-won rights.

We've added a template email below, but please personalise it before sending it off. Click on 'email tips' for a bit of help with what to add.

Find your local rep

Subject:

I'm writing to you today as a constituent about an issue dear to my heart. On 22nd April, the Minister for Women and Equalities (Rt Hon Liz Truss MP) presented oral evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee on her future plans for the Government Equalities Office (GEO).

During this session and whilst talking about issues concerning trans people, she stated that a priority for her would be that “under 18s are protected from decisions that they could make that are irreversible in future”. I believe it is clear, then, that she would seek to curtail young trans people’s access to healthcare.

Notwithstanding the legal precedents of Gillick Competence (enshrining the right of under-16s to make choices around their healthcare where they present a competent understanding) and of 16-17 year olds already having full legal agency over their healthcare decisions, this is a worrying statement to make. To seek to foster inequality with regards to healthcare for certain subsections of the population goes deeply against everything the GEO was created for, and to do so in this time of an international health crisis is nothing short of incendiary and harmful.

Trans, non-binary and gender diverse young people are already facing an uphill battle to access appropriate healthcare, with waiting times for the country’s one Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) reaching into the years, even before the COVID-19 crisis hit.

It is of huge concern to me that the Minister for Women and Equalities seems to be in favour of retrograde and reactive action to dissolve this right of bodily autonomy for under-18s. I am therefore very keen for the Minister to speak directly to those people directly affected by the already-overstretched GIDS system, to listen to young trans people who choose to transition and what that entails for them, as well as organisations which work with those young people.

If we allow the right to bodily autonomy for trans under-18s to be destroyed, there is nothing to stop access to contraceptives or abortion being next on the chopping block. A loss to trans youth is a loss to all.

It is a fundamental human right that people have autonomy over choices concerning their own bodies; this fundamental right does not disappear if someone is not of a politically convenient age. I'm asking that you - as my MP and as the representative at Westminster for all your constituents, trans or not - listen to the concerns of the British public and organisations such as Gendered Intelligence on how to improve the lives of trans people up and down our country. Please raise these issues directly with Liz Truss MP.

Thank you very much for your time

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