Mary Margaret Olohan / @MaryMargOlohan /
In this composite photo, Mike Pence (left) accepts the 2020 vice presidential nomination during the Republican National Convention from Fort McHenry National Monument on Aug. 26, 2020, in Baltimore, and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., delivers remarks at the Faith and Freedom Road to Majority conference at the Washington Hilton on June 23 in Washington, D.C. Pence, Scott, and others vying for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination have condemned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its promotion of “chestfeeding” by transgender-identifying individuals. (Photos: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Top candidates vying for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination are weighing in on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s promotion of trans-identifying men and women “chestfeeding” infant babies.
In guidance on feeding infants posted on the CDC’s website, the federal agency stresses that “transgender and nonbinary-gendered individuals may give birth and breastfeed or feed at the chest (chestfeed),” noting that the “gender identity or expression of transgender individuals is different from their sex at birth” and “the gender identity of nonbinary-gendered individuals does not fit neatly into either man or woman.”
The CDC also refers readers to the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine protocol that breaks down how biological men who identify as transgender women and have had “breast augmentation” (the addition of faux breasts) can “chestfeed” a baby.
The Daily Signal reached out to all the major Republican candidates for president, many of whom condemned the CDC’s move as ideological.
Candidates Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, and Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
“The CDC is entrusted with protecting the health and safety of all Americans, including our most vulnerable—our children,” former Vice President Mike Pence told The Daily Signal. “This latest guidance is just another insane example of a complete lack of leadership at the CDC, which will no doubt result in mental or physical harm to a child.”
“The CDC’s culture must be reformed and common sense must be restored, so that the organization’s focus is put back on actually keeping people safe,” he added.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina called the move “unbelievable.”
“The ‘science’ behind it is jacked up, and it is simply dangerous for kids,” the second-term lawmaker told The Daily Signal. “The Left continues to move too far to try to make everyone feel accepted, even when it puts children at risk.”
Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy pointed to the Food and Drug Administration’s 2004 warning to pregnant women not to use domperidone to increase milk production due to safety concerns: “Because of the possibility of serious adverse effects, FDA recommends that breastfeeding women not use domperidone to increase milk production.”
“The FDA warns that some of these hormone drugs can be passed along into ‘breast milk’ and can give babies an irregular heartbeat as a result,” said Ramaswamy, a businessman and entrepreneur. “This is not science. This is a social contagion of a mental health epidemic that the federal government is pushing.”
Candidate Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and the only female top contender, told The Daily Signal that “Biden’s CDC makes us look so distracted.”
“China, Russia, North Korea, and all our enemies are laughing at us,” she said. “Take politics out of it, and put our children’s health first.”
Transgender activists claim that it is, in fact, possible for biological men who identify as transgender women to “chestfeed” an infant.
Two pro-transgender doctors claim that a man was able to produce enough of some sort of nipple discharge to sustain a baby for six weeks by “implementing a regimen of domperidone, estradiol, progesterone, and breast pumping,” according to a 2018 case report on “induced lactation.”
It’s unclear what concoction of hormones or nutrients that nipple discharge actually contained or what effect it had on the child’s development. The case report makes no mention of where the baby—which the biological man had presumably adopted—came from. The pro-transgender doctors, Tamar Reisman and Zil Goldstein, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Signal.
The Daily Signal previously spoke with a number of mothers who pointed out how very careful the medical community is with pregnant mothers who are biological females, warning those moms not to eat deli meat, certain kinds of cheeses, and vegetables, and not to drink certain juices, caffeine, and alcohol.
The CDC has not returned requests for comment on the topic, specifically on what health risks may be in store for babies who consume a biological male’s nipple secretion.
“The CDC has a responsibility to talk about the health risks, but they have been derelict in doing that,” Dr. Jane Orient told The Daily Mail. “We have no idea what the long-term effects on the child will be” if the trans-identifying man or woman is using “all kinds of off-label hormones.”
New York-based internal medicine physician Dr. Stuart Fischer told the publication that it is “very hard to believe” that a biological man’s nipple secretion is comparable to a biologically female mother’s breast milk. “If it’s been tested a handful of times, how would we know the long-range effect?” he asked. “The short term is one thing, but the long term in terms of physical and mental illness … ”
“It’s an emerging field, to put it mildly,” he added.
