The claim: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said parents who seek gender-affirming care for their children subject those children to abuse — so much so that other nations have sought to ban it. During the fourth Republican presidential primary debate Dec. 6 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, DeSantis cited Sweden as an example. “As a parent, you do not have the right to abuse your kids,” DeSantis said. “This is cutting off their genitals, this is mutilating these minors, these are irreversible procedures. And this is something that other countries in Europe like Sweden, once they started doing it, they saw it did incalculable damage. They’ve shut it down.”