This bill would criminalize gender reassignment surgeries and gender-affirming healthcare for children under 18.
The bill was passed by the Republican-controlled House with a vote 55-13. It now moves to the Senate. Represtantive Fred Wood (a retiredlicensed doctor) was the only Republican to vote against the measure.
The bill’s current form would make anyone who “knowingly engages in” specific forms of medical treatment “to change or affirm the children’s perceptions of sex if those perceptions are inconsistent with the biological sex of the child,” including non-surgical options such as testosterone injections or puberty blockers, a felon.
The bill’s sponsors claim it is designed to prevent children from making irreversible choices. However, HB 657’s language frames this issue as protecting future fertility.
Republican Representative Bruce Skaug who sponsored the bill said Tuesday that “This bill is about protecting kids, which is a legitimate government interest.” “We must stop sterilizing and dismembering children below the age of 18.
However, Democratic opponents to the bill disagreed.
According to The Associated Press, Represtantive Ned Burns stated that “We sit here and we claim ourselves pro-life in the body, but if it passes that will most certainly be false because a yes vote would be a noose around children’s necks who want to live but not like this.”
Ilana Rubel, Democratic House Minority Leader, responded to the idea that gender-affirming decisions should be made only after an adult has reached adulthood. She noted that “allowing puberty’s course to change the body in profound and irreversible manners.”
According to AP, she stated that “you are forcing people into a position where the transition for their rest of life on Earth will not be as effective.” “You’re really messing up their lives until the end.”
Many other states are also trying to pass or implement orders that could criminalize transgender children receiving gender-affirming and/or gender-transferring care. In February Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered state agencies investigate child abuse involving gender-affirming care.
The American Medical Association sent a letter in 2021 to state legislators warning that bans on transgender children could have devastating effects on their mental and physical health. The letter stated that every major American medical association recognizes the need for transition-related care to improve the mental and physical health of transgender individuals.
