Latest news with #DrJakeDonaldson
CBC
28-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Doctors group challenging constitutionality of Alberta transgender law
Social Sharing A group representing Canada's doctors is challenging the constitutionality of Alberta's legislation banning certain gender-affirming treatments for children under the age of 16, arguing it violates their Charter right to freedom of conscience. The Canadian Medical Association says it filed the challenge Wednesday in Alberta Court of King's Bench. The CMA says the move is meant to protect the relationship between patients and doctors when it comes to making treatment decisions. "This is a historic and unprecedented government intrusion into the physician-patient relationship and requires doctors to follow the law rather than clinical guidelines, the needs of patients and their own conscience," the association said in a statement. The legislation was part of a trio of bills affecting transgender people that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's government passed last year. The association is specifically challenging the bill that blocks doctors from prescribing hormone therapy and puberty blockers to children under 16 and bans gender-affirming surgeries for those under 18. The other bills ban transgender women from competing in amateur women's sports and make it a requirement for children under 16 to receive parental consent to change their names or pronouns at school. Smith has said the medical treatment legislation is necessary to protect children and ensure they don't make major decisions before they reach adulthood. Dr. Jake Donaldson, who is one of three Alberta-based doctors involved in the court challenge, said the law has put him and other doctors in a "state of moral crisis." "It is encroaching upon sort of the autonomy of physicians and our ability to provide what we believe is best, and individualized, evidence-based care for patients," the Calgary family doctor said in an interview. "It forces me to sort of stand on the sidelines and refuse to provide care to patients who would otherwise, in all likelihood, significantly benefit from it." Donaldson said he has roughly 40 young patients who receive the kinds of treatment the law outlaws, although an exemption clause in the legislation means those patients aren't being cut off. "From the standpoint of gender-affirming care, what we are able to do in the medical world is help people," Donaldson said. "There's good evidence behind what we're doing, [and] there are guidelines that we follow. Nobody's making decisions willy-nilly."
CTV News
28-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
Canadian doctors group challenging constitutionality of Alberta transgender law
Medical tools are pictured in an exam room at a health clinic in Calgary on Friday, July 14, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh EDMONTON — A group representing Canada's doctors is challenging the constitutionality of Alberta's legislation limiting access to medical treatment for transgender youth, arguing it violates their Charter right to freedom of conscience. The Canadian Medical Association says the court challenge is meant to protect the relationship between patients and doctors when it comes to making treatment decisions. The legislation was part of a trio of bills Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's government passed last year affecting transgender people. Besides blocking doctors from prescribing hormone therapy and puberty blockers to those under the age of 16, the government also banned transgender women from competing in amateur women's sports and made it a requirement for children under 16 to receive parental consent to change their names or pronouns at school. Smith has said the legislation is necessary to protect children and ensure they don't make major decisions before they reach adulthood. Association president Dr. Joss Reimer says the government's legislation interferes with a doctor's ability to help patients in choosing the best care possible. Dr. Jake Donaldson, a family physician in Calgary who is involved in the challenge, says the legislation has put him and other doctors in a state of moral crisis. Donaldson says he went into medicine to help people, and the legislation means he'd have to refuse care to patients who could significantly benefit from it. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2025. Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press
