CDC Has ‘Lost All Credibility,’ Lawmaker Says as Agency Pushes ‘Chestfeeding’

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, in a file image. Tami Chappell via Reuters

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance for transgender individuals seeking to “chestfeed” their infants has some lawmakers concerned that the U.S. health agency is prioritizing politics before patients’ health.

“Transgender and nonbinary-gendered individuals may give birth and breastfeed or feed at the chest (chestfeed),” the agency states under “Health Equity Considerations” on its website,

Encouraging medical professionals to use patients’ preferred pronouns, the CDC also states that “an individual does not need to have given birth to breastfeed or chestfeed.”

On another webpage featuring breastfeeding guidance for those who have had breast surgery, the CDC instructs: “Some transgender parents who have had breast/top surgery may wish to breastfeed, or chestfeed (a term used by some transgender and non-binary parents), their infants. Healthcare providers working with these families should be familiar with medical, emotional, and social aspects of gender transitions to provide optimal family-centered care and meet the nutritional needs of the infant.”

Areas where such individuals might need help, the CDC noted, include “maximizing milk production” and “medication to induce lactation,” among others.

The website also links to guidance (pdf) from the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, which assures that there has been “one case report and many anecdotal reports” of men who identify as transgender producing breastmilk.

The website was last updated on April 4.

‘Absolute Insanity’

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), a former White House physician, weighed in on the CDC’s guidance in a recent interview with Donald Trump Jr.

“It’s ludicrous,” Mr. Jackson said. “These people, the ones that are physicians, should have their medical licenses taken away from them. This is absolute insanity.”

Likewise, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), an obstetrician, wrote in a Twitter post: “In my opinion, the CDC has lost all credibility. A biological male filled with hormones and a concoction of other drugs that could harm a baby should NEVER try to naturally feed a newborn. When will the Left wake up and realize what they are doing to our country?”

According to the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, the only published case report of induced lactation in a biological male occurred when the patient was taking domperidone.

Used for the treatment of nausea, vomiting, and gastrointestinal problems in other countries, domperidone isn’t legally approved for any use in the United States. For nearly two decades, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has specifically warned against the drug’s use for enhancing lactation because of potential health risks to both mother and child.

“There have been several published reports and case studies of cardiac arrhythmias, cardiac arrest, and sudden death in patients receiving an intravenous form of domperidone that has been withdrawn from marketing in a number of countries,” the FDA stated in a June 2004 notice.

“In several countries where the oral form of domperidone continues to be marketed, labels for the product contain specific warnings against use of domperidone by breastfeeding women and note that the drug is excreted in breast milk that could expose a breastfeeding infant to unknown risks. Because of the possibility of serious adverse effects, FDA recommends that breastfeeding women not use domperidone to increase milk production.”

Noting that warning, Mr. Marshall said that it’s “evident the CDC has placed politics and its social agenda ahead of science and the health of newborns.”

Politics and Science

According to Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, it’s still largely unknown what side effects that children exposed to such off-label drug use would develop.

“We have no idea what the long-term effects on the child will be,” Dr. Orient told The Daily Mail.

“A lot of people are pushing for off-label use of a drug. It’s become so politicized that you can do all kinds of things for a politically approved purpose.”

The doctor also said the CDC has a duty to be transparent about the risks associated with medications, “but they have been derelict in doing that.”

Dr. Stuart Fischer, an internal medicine physician in New York, told the outlet that it was “very hard to believe” that breast milk produced by a biological male could be comparable to that produced by a woman “because it’s induced,“ he said. ”You can’t fool Mother Nature.”

Mr. Marshall noted in a statement that drug-induced lactation wouldn’t have colostrum in it.

“Colostrum is Mother Nature’s nutrient-dense, real mother’s milk loaded with antibodies and antioxidants that gives a mom’s protection to the vulnerable newborn,” he said.

And any liquid produced by a biological male would “not provide all the nutrition or calories healthy, growing newborn babies need,” according to Mr. Marshall.

Dr. Fischer, sharing Dr. Orient’s concerns about adverse effects, noted that long-term effects could include physical and mental illness.

“Who knows?“ he said. ”It’s an emerging field, to put it mildly.

“This is the kind of thing where politics and science are uncomfortably put together.”

CDC officials didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.