In the wake of oral arguments before the Supreme Court Wednesday over whether states can bar gender-confused minors from mutilating surgeries and puberty-blocking drugs, experts say that while the courtroom drama highlighted legal fallacies being pushed by the Biden administration, it did little to advance the discussion about addressing the underlying causes of why kids question their biological sex.

Dr. Jennifer Bauwens, a clinical psychologist, licensed therapist, and clinical researcher who studies the effects of trauma on children and how they can be treated, pointed out on Wednesday’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” that there is virtually no scientific data to evaluate those who identify as “non-binary” or “gender fluid,” especially for those who may choose to reverse their transition.

“[W]e don’t have any research that says who’s going to enjoy ‘gender-affirming care’ over time,” she observed. “If there’s such thing as non-binary and fluid gender, then who’s going to stay the opposite sex for how long? So then you’ve removed their body parts, and then [what if] they decide a year from now that they’re actually switching back to a different gender? Ideally in the scientific world, you would have instruments that you would develop that would predict those types of things. But we’re just going in like the Wild West, just performing all kinds of crazy experiments on children without any sense of real grounding in the scientific method. … [T]hese procedures should have never been performed on a single child.”

Family Research Council Tony Perkins concurred, while further acknowledging that “these things are real — the emotions that these individuals [experience], the gender dysphoria. But what’s been missing,” he went on, “… is to go to the source of the issue that’s driving the dysphoria. The fact they’re uncomfortable, they don’t feel like they’re in the right sex — usually this is attached to some form of trauma.”

“That’s right,” Bauwens responded, “and a lot of the think tanks on the other side who are in support of this issue, their own research has shown that a number of people who are trans-identified have big, huge trauma histories. I mean, we’re talking [about] a significant portion of people, and those are just the ones who know enough to claim that. So we’re not even talking about the people who don’t even have a sense of what trauma is,” which might sound illogical, she admitted, “but it’s true. Doing trauma work, a lot of times people are so accustomed to living a certain way and experiencing horrific things that they don’t identify that as [actual] trauma.”

Bauwens, who serves as the director of the Center for Family Studies at FRC, elaborated on the common types of trauma that those experiencing gender dysphoria have often undergone.

“Sexual abuse, physical abuse, some forms of emotional abuse,” she listed. “When someone is calling you names and degrading your personhood or withholding basic care from your life, especially as a child, these are forms of abuse that many of the trans-identified people have gone through. And again, maybe it’s not to that level, but usually, if you work with someone, you can find a source of where this idea came from. And that’s what’s not happening in the mental health profession.”

Bauwens went on to argue that the health care industry’s complicity in facilitating gender ideology has compounded the trauma that has been inflicted on those confused about their gender.

“[O]ur society has been making it worse for these folks because now they have trauma upon trauma to deal with,” she contended. “The very people that they went to for help are inflicting more trauma through the supposed answers that they are giving them. And so we’re going to have a lot of people who’ve been affected by this not only that have to deal with the root cause, but now they have to deal with forgiving a whole profession that has led them astray. It’s the blind leading the blind.”

But legal experts say that Wednesday’s events at the Supreme Court signal that the tide may be turning. According to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R), the tenor of the justice’s remarks indicates that state laws prohibiting gender transition procedures on minors are likely to be upheld.

“I was very pleased by the questioning that we saw from the court, particularly the aggressive pushback from Justice [Samuel] Alito when the Department of Justice truly misstated the facts as it relates to how accepted this type of treatment is and what the potential consequences are for kids long-term,” he remarked during “Washington Watch” Wednesday. “And so I feel confident that Tennessee will prevail [which] gives an opportunity not only for Tennessee to be able to continue this protection, but also the countless other states across the country that likewise want to be able to protect our kids.”

Marshall further noted that one of the attorneys arguing against Tennessee, trans-identifying ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio, “went on a TV interview the day before his argument and said that a two-year-old can make a decision about whether or not to change their gender.”

“Obviously, that’s not what Americans believe,” Marshall concluded. “It shows that this is more political than it is legal, and we need to do right by our kids to make sure that those who are suffering from gender dysphoria have the right type of treatment, but we don’t want them to be experiments that harm them for the rest of their lives.”