During today’s confirmation hearing in the Senate HELP Committee, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) challenged Dr. Rachel Levine, Joe Biden’s nominee for Assistant Secretary for Health, about Levine’s past support for prescribing young children puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in order to help those children live as the opposite sex.

Dr. Levine twice evaded Sen. Paul’s direct question on whether minor children are old enough to consent to such life-altering treatments. You can watch the full exchange here.

In an article at The National Pulse earlier this week, American Principles Project’s Jon Schweppe was first to publicize Dr. Levine’s past comments on the subject, which drew widespread attention among conservatives in advance of the hearing.

After the hearing, Terry Schilling, executive director of American Principles Project (APP), released the following statement:

“Today, Dr. Rachel Levine was given the opportunity to state clearly what most Americans know to be true: young children should not be pushed into highly experimental, life-altering treatments to ‘change’ their sex. Instead, Dr. Levine doubled down on radical gender ideology and made clear that this ideology, not science, will be driving policy at HHS should Levine be confirmed.

“We are grateful for Sen. Paul’s immense courage in putting a spotlight on this issue during this morning’s hearing, despite the attempts of Democrats to shame him and other Republicans into silence. It is important that the American people are aware of just how extreme Joe Biden’s nominees are and what they are likely to support as members of his administration.

“Dr. Levine’s radical ideology ought to be a disqualifier for any position at HHS, never mind one as important as Assistant Secretary for Health, and we urge the Senate to reject this confirmation when it comes up for a vote.”

To schedule an interview with an APP policy expert, contact Paul Dupont at (o) 202-503-2010 or pdupont@americanprinciplesproject.org.