COMMENTARY:
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the brain—specifically one’s prefrontal cortex—continues developing well into a person’s mid- to late-20s. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for judgement, impulse control, planning, and decision-making, and it’s one of the very last regions of the brain to mature. Neuroscience researchers have similarly found that this critical area of the brain is still developing until around age 25.
As a mother, I also can speak to a child’s development. The majority of my children are grown now, and there is a large difference in their personalities and decision-making skills from when they were 12 compared to now.
In other words, parents and physicians already understand that children are still growing and maturing—still learning how to process risk and consequence. That is precisely why we do not allow five-year-olds to drive cars, twelve-year-olds to get tattoos, or teenagers to sign mortgages.
I can’t stop coming back to the same conclusion: why would we allow children to make irreversible medical decisions long before their brains are even close to being fully developed? This should not be a controversial conclusion. It should be common sense.
Yet somehow, our culture keeps telling children they are mature enough to permanently alter healthy bodies in the name of “gender identity.”
This issue is often framed as compassion versus cruelty. It is not. What it should be framed as is a manipulative way to indoctrinate our kids into an ideology that they cannot understand.
Kids struggle with their identities all the time. Especially today. Social media has accelerated confusion, insecurity, comparison, and anxiety to levels previous generations never experienced. Children who feel uncomfortable in their bodies often seek out others who feel the same on the internet, making them feel like it’s safe to let their guard down. When they do, they’re met with affirmation and a prescripted guide for how to speak to parents—or worse, they’re taught to keep it all a secret from them.
In New Mexico, many parents are waking up to the reality that these conversations are happening earlier and earlier. Children are being introduced to ideas about gender identity at ages when they still believe in imaginary worlds and cartoon characters. Meanwhile, schools and institutions encourage this affirmation with zero questions, full steam ahead.
Children are not miniature adults, and they must not be treated as such. New Mexico, however, is a transgender sanctuary state, meaning that teachers and school faculty can face accusations of discrimination if they do not comply with socially transitioning a child. They also are not required to let parents know. How can there ever be trust in institutions and school systems if we as parents don’t even know what is going on behind closed doors while we think our children are safe?
The prefrontal cortex helps human beings weigh long-term consequences, regulate impulses, and understand future risk. When we encourage minors towards pathways involving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgeries before that development is complete, we are asking them to make adult decisions with adolescent brains.
As mothers, we are supposed to protect our children from permanent harm while they are still too young to fully understand it themselves. New Mexico’s children deserve adults willing to slow this down, ask hard questions, and put long-term well-being ahead of ideology. One day, these children will grow up and look back at the adults who guided them. We must be able to say that we did everything we could to protect them.
Erica Ramirez is a New Mexico’s Voices Las Cruces leader and Independent Women’s Network member.
Erica Ramirez's opinions are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.