By Dr. Mark Creech
Director of Government Relations
Return America
Not long ago, Prisha Mosley stood before lawmakers at the North Carolina General Assembly and told a story that should stop every policymaker and every parent in their tracks.
It was not theory. It was not politics. It was testimony written in permanent scars.
Mosley, a North Carolina woman, explained how, as a vulnerable teenager, she was placed on puberty blockers, given cross-sex hormones, and ultimately underwent a double mastectomy, all in the name of what was presented to her as “gender-affirming care.” Today, she lives with the consequences and is seeking accountability through the courts.
That is why her story is not merely personal. It is, at its core, a North Carolina story.
Last year, the General Assembly passed HB 805 – Prevent Sexual Exploitation/Women and Minors, a wide-ranging measure that included extending the statute of limitations for malpractice claims related to gender-transition procedures. Governor Josh Stein vetoed the bill. But lawmakers, many of them citing serious moral concerns, overrode that veto and enacted the measure into law.
Their action now looks less like politics and more like prudence.
Mosley herself has explained the path that led to her regret. As a teenager struggling with trauma and mental health challenges, she says medical professionals assured her that altering her body would resolve her distress. Instead of patience, counseling, and time, she was given hormones and surgery. Instead of healing, she says she was left with permanent loss.
In her own words, doctors told her that “changing my body to look like a boy’s body would cure my mental health problems.” It did not. She now lives with chronic pain, a permanently altered voice, and the inability to breastfeed her own child.
Her lawsuit, which was filed in Gaston County in 2023, alleges fraud, malpractice, and related claims against medical providers involved in her treatment. Although a judge later dismissed key claims, her legal team has appealed, and the case continues to draw national attention.
But the courtroom is only part of the story.
Increasingly, even voices within the medical establishment are expressing unease. Recently, major professional groups signaled that gender surgeries on minors should not be considered standard medical practice. Meanwhile, physicians such as Dr. Ira Sibetsky, reflecting on his own training, have publicly expressed regret for failing to oppose what he described as “irreversible life-altering surgeries” performed on children.
These developments matter because they underscore what detransitioners like Mosley have been warning: the science and ethics in this field are far less settled than activists often suggest.
When Mosley testified in Raleigh, she did more than recount her personal pain. She issued a warning.
I remember hearing her testimony in committee and being struck by its sobriety. She was not animated by hatred or political theater. She spoke as someone who trusted the adults in her life – the experts in white coats – and now must live with consequences she says were never fully explained.
Her experience raises uncomfortable but necessary questions.
Were vulnerable adolescents rushed too quickly toward irreversible interventions?
Were parents given the full picture of long-term risks?
Has ideology, in some cases, outpaced evidence?
These are not hostile questions. They are responsible ones. And it appears quite clear that the answer is tragically, “yes,” to all three.
Children deserve compassion. They deserve careful, patient mental health care. They deserve medical ethics that honor the ancient principle physicians once memorized at graduation: first, do no harm.
Scripture reminds us that children are not experimental subjects but sacred trusts. Jesus said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14). That passage is not merely sentimental; it is instructive. It teaches that the young are to be protected, guided, and carefully nurtured, not rushed toward irreversible decisions in moments of adolescent distress – not pushed to conclusions far beyond their capacity to discern.
HB 805 did not settle the broader cultural debate. But it did do something important and modest: it ensured that individuals who believe they were harmed have a fairer opportunity to seek justice through the courts.
This is not extremism. This is reasonable accountability.
North Carolina lawmakers were right to override the governor’s veto. Time will tell how Mosley’s appeal ultimately fares, but her courage in stepping forward has already changed the conversation in this state.
The wisdom of Scripture also cautions against reckless intervention in what God has designed. The psalmist declares, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). Any medical model that treats the healthy human body as disposable parts must at least wrestle honestly with this truth.
Public policy is often abstract, numbers on a spreadsheet, or language in a statute. But sometimes a single human story cuts through the fog.
Prisha Mosley’s story is one of those moments.
The question is whether we will listen.
Picture: Screenshot from “Prisha Mosley: A Detransitioner’s Pregnancy Journey,” Independent Women, YouTube, June 26, 2024.
