SE Illinois News

State Rep. Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich) is aghast at a bill that will allow children to go around their parents to receive gender-affirming health care and abortions. 

Niemerg also voiced out how he is strongly opposing Lurie Children's Hospital's decision to offer the services to children.

“Folks, this is child abuse….simple as that!” Niemerg (R-Dieterich) told Center Square. "These procedures are being offered at a particular point in time where these children, they don't know if they want chicken nuggets or cheeseburgers for dinner, let alone being able to make these life-altering decisions.” 

NIemerg noted he and others will be introducing legislation to outlaw chemical castration and gender surgeries for minors in Illinois. 

"I completely disagree with their decision," he said. "Again, I believe children should be protected as they are our most valuable asset, and for them to be making these decisions and leading them down this path, these children could grow up 20, 30 years down the road with severe damage.” 

Attorney General Kwame Raoul is supporting the legislation that would allow children to receive abortions and gender reassignment surgery without their parents' knowledge or consent. 

"Transgender people deserve access to gender-affirming care, and I am committed to fighting against health care discrimination," Raoul said, according to The Center Square. "I will continue to work with my fellow attorneys general to support the rights of transgender people and oppose efforts that jeopardize the safety and health of the LGBTQ+ community,” 

The bill would allow for “sanctuary” status for minors seeking gender reassignment. “Illinois too is plagued with Democrats who are as hell-bent on destroying the bodies, minds, and hearts of children as they are in destroying the nuclear family, publicly subsidized schools, and urban communities,” The Illinois Family Institute wrote. “While Kelly Cassidy has a long history of using the government to normalize disordered eroticism, somehow another homosexual lawmaker got the jump on her with regard to a 'trans'-sanctuary bill for Illinois. That lawmaker is State Senator Michael Simmons (D-Chicago) who was appointed to the office in February 2021 when another disastrous leftist lawmaker—Heather Steans—retired.” The institute underscored that “On November 29,2022 Simmons—who has no children—introduced SB 4245, the ‘Gender-Affirming Health Care Protection Act,’ which prohibits the ‘State,’ ‘law enforcement,’ and the ‘Governor’ from complying with statutes and subpoenas issued by other states regarding experimental and ghoulish medical ‘interventions’ with which leftists like to maim minors’ bodies.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is directly involved with funding gender reassignment at Lurie Hospital in Chicago. The Pritzker Foundation gave Lurie’s Childen’s Hospital $6.45 million in January. That was on top of a previous $15 million in 2019.

The hospital’s gender assignment team has it's messaging out to local schools as well. "Beyond Binary: Gender in Schools," a training manual offered to schools, provided an academic queer theory on the subject of gender identity that “follows the basic narrative of academic queer theory: white, Western society has created an oppressive gender binary, falsely dividing the world into the categories of man and woman, that has resulted in “transphobia,” “cissexism,” and “systemic discrimination” against racial and sexual minorities.” As a result, clinics offering costly medical procedures for children have begun to proliferate. Pediatrician Michelle Cretella said in the past eight years, the number of gender clinics in the pediatric medical community has increased by 2000%. “Pediatric 'gender clinics' are considered elite centers for affirming children who are distressed by their biological sex. This distressful condition, once dubbed gender identity disorder, was renamed “gender dysphoria” in 2013,” Cretella wrote, Chicago City Wire previously reported. “In 2014, there were 24 of these gender clinics, clustered chiefly along the east coast and in California. One year later, there were 40 across the nation.”

Niemerg is a member of the Illinois Freedom Caucus along with GOP State Reps. Chris Miller, Brad Halbrook, Dan Caulkins, and Blaine Wilhour. It is part of the broader State Freedom Caucus Network. “We need patriots who will serve in our state capitals to fight federal overreach and stand firm against those — in both parties — who prioritize seizing political power over representing constituents,” the group’s website reads.