WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Independent Women celebrates the bicameral introduction of the Chloe Cole Act by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Congressman Bob Onder (R-MO)—a historic win for detransitioners nationwide in the fight for justice against medical providers who have mutilated healthy bodies in the name of so-called “gender-affirming care.” This bill makes clear: the abuse stops. No more children in America will be harmed.

In line with President Donald J. Trump’s week-one executive order, Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation, this bill, if passed by Congress, will prevent medical manipulation from reaching vulnerable and confused youth by prohibiting the chemical and surgical mutilation of children, and it will also provide a private right of action for children and the parents of children whose healthy body parts have already been damaged by medical professionals practicing chemical and surgical mutilation.

The law will also extend the statute of limitations for detransitioners to 25 years from their eighteenth birthday or 4 years from the time a detransition treatment is charged as a major win in their fight for justice.

“Children cannot consent to mutilating their bodies, compromising their mental health, and putting their fertility and sexual health in permanent jeopardy,” said Carrie Lukas, president of Independent Women. “At Independent Women, we’ve worked with countless young women and men, who were pushed down this path and now are dealing with the lasting fallout, physical scars, and chronic medical conditions in the aftermath of harmful hormone disruptions. Most of them started on this abusive medical path as minors, some even pre-pubescent. The medical community did worse than let them down—they lied to them, actively harmed them, and neglected to provide the care they really needed. Society needs to stand up for the rights of children to be children and close the door on mutilating medical treatments on minors.”

Beth Parlato, senior legal advisor for Independent Women, said: “The government has both the authority and responsibility to protect the health and welfare of children from irreversible medical interventions that carry lifelong consequences. The law has long recognized, rightly, that minors cannot provide informed consent to life-altering procedures. It is both appropriate and necessary for Congress to act within its constitutional authority to prohibit these practices that are permanently harming our children under the guise of medical care.”

[Left] IW Features’ Chloe Cole “Identity Crisis” documentary
[Right] IW Features’ Luke Healy “Identity Crisis” documentary, featuring a Chloe Cole special appearance.

Independent Women’s Features (IW Features), the grassroots storytelling and original journalism division of Independent Women, first told Chloe Cole’s story in 2023, giving her story a national platform through its “Identity Crisis” series. Chloe Cole and Luke Healy, another detransitioner featured in the series, penned an op-ed last month in collaboration with IW Features on how California’s “legal kidnapping” bill puts gender-confused kids in danger.

Pictured above (left to right): Prisha Mosley, Soren Aldaco, Luke Healy, and Claire Abernathy
Learn more about IW Features’ “Identity Crisis” series here.

IW Features has also told the stories of other prominent detransitioners, including Prisha Mosley, Soren Aldaco, Luke Healy, and Claire Abernathy, who are all now nationally recognized advocates against child mutilation and ambassadors at Independent Women. After enduring cross-sex hormones and double mastectomies that have left them with permanent scars and health complications, the “Chloe Cole Act” would finally provide these detransitioners a path to seek justice and accountability from their medical providers.

Prisha Mosley, Independent Women ambassador and detransitioner, said: “I’m grateful to see congress taking action against doctors, therapists, and the professionals who peddle an ideological product to children in need of evidence based and ethical care. Ground work at the state level has not been enough to stop abusive practitioners from defrauding and harming patients who identify as trans.”

Soren Aldaco, Independent Women ambassador and detransitioner, said: “I feel encouraged to see the federal government taking action to end the chemical and surgical disfigurement of minors under the euphemism of ‘gender-affirming care.’ This legislation is designed to protect young people who have internalized stereotypes about biological sex from interventions that profit off of our continued suffering, lack strong evidence base, and violate the fundamental ethical principle underlying medicine—non-maleficience, or that providers should ‘do no harm.’”

Luke Healy, Independent Women ambassador and detransitioner, said: “I know firsthand that vulnerable kids are being sold lies disguised as care. My parents did the bravest thing I’ve ever witnessed—they said no, even when doctors, therapists, and society pressured them from every side. Kids deserve the truth—no more lies, no more sales pitches. I am encouraged by the legislation in Congress that could stop more families from experiencing the pain that mine did.”

Claire Abernathy, Independent Women ambassador and detransitioner, said: “At 14, I trusted the adults who were supposed to protect me. Instead, they sold me a dream that turned out to be a nightmare. That’s not healthcare—it’s blatant consumer fraud. I am thankful for this new legislation in Congress that will make sure so no more children face the harms that I did. We need to make sure that no more kids are sold a product they can’t return.”

Neeraja Deshpande, policy analyst at Independent Women, said: “Doctors swear first to do no harm, and yet the entire mainstream medical apparatus has sacrificed children on the altar of ideology, mutilating their bodies with toxic hormones and experimental surgeries while manipulating their parents into affirming delusion. Patients who were lied to by the medical establishment deserve justice, and The Chloe Cole Act brings them one step closer to just that.”

See more detransitioner stories from Independent Women ambassadors, as told by Independent Women’s Features:

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