CLAIM: Norway has banned gender-affirming care for minors.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The country has not changed its guidelines on gender-affirming care for minors, which currently includes non-surgical treatments but recommends against surgery for under-18s in most cases. An independent Norwegian healthcare board not associated with the government recently proposed increased restrictions on such care — though not an outright ban — but it has no authority to institute the changes. Norway’s health agency is considering the recommendations but confirmed nothing has been banned.
THE FACTS: As Republican lawmakers across the U.S. ban gender-affirming care for minors, social media have in recent days shared a misleading article to falsely suggest Norway has made similar changes to its laws.
“Norway joins Sweden, Finland, UK, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Tennessee in banning gender affirming care for minors,” reads one tweet sharing the article that had more than 81,000 likes as of Thursday.
The article was published on May 13 by SOTT.net, a website that has previously shared misinformation. The article’s text is an opinion piece first published by the Washington Examiner two months earlier, which never claims Norway has banned such care. But SOTT had changed the headline from “Norway offers a step forward in eliminating gender ideology” to “Norway bans child sex changes, joins Finland, Sweden, and UK in rejecting gender ideology.”
Reached for comment, SOTT.net acknowledged in a...
Pakistan on April 22, Thursday urged the United Nations to call upon India to restore full implementation of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), warning that New Delhi’s “illegal” decision to hold the ...