Sex change surgeries and gender hormone treatments on minors is one of the hottest issues today. This practice has the approval of the Biden Administration but the vast majority of American disagree. The president stated in October that banning such treatments is "outrageous" and "immoral.”
Several states disagree with the president. More and more people are opposing Biden's reasoning for allowing sex change surgeries and treatments on minors.
Texas
The first is Texas. The Lone Star State’s Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) considere sex change procedures on minors to be child abuse. DFPS member Jaime Masters noted:
Genital mutilation of a child through reassignment surgery is child abuse, subject to all rules and procedures pertaining to child abuse. Such mutilation may cause a ‘genuine threat of substantial harm from physical injury to the child. This surgical procedure physically alters a child’s genitalia for non-medical purposes potentially inflicting irreversible harm to children’s bodies. Generally, children in the care and custody of a parent lack the legal capacity to consent to surgical treatments, making them more vulnerable.
Florida
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spearheaded a gubernatorial campaign to restrict the procedures for minors in June 2022, and the Board of Medicine officially banned the procedures in October. In a letter from the state Department of Health he said:
The scientific evidence supporting these complex medical interventions is extraordinarily weak (...) The current standards set by numerous professional organizations appear to follow a preferred political ideology instead of the highest level of generally accepted medical science. Florida must do more to protect children from politics-based medicine. Otherwise, children and adolescents in our state will continue to face a substantial risk of long-term harm.
Tennessee
The Tennessee Senate passed a bill banning transgender treatments for minors. The proposal forbids medical providers from allowing young people to undergo sex change surgeries or treatments. Jack Johnson, a Republican lawmaker from Tennessee, said:
It helps the minor children who otherwise might be subjected to surgical procedures that remove body parts or being prescribed medications that make permanent changes to a child’s body.
South Dakota
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed a bill into law to ban sex change surgeries and treatments on minors. The law, which will take effect on July 31, 2023, states that physicians who fail to comply with it will lose their license.
The legislation prohibits physicians from prescribing puberty blocking drugs and hormones. Physicians may not perform surgeries that alter the sex of a minor. Surgeries that remove healthy body parts or tissues are also prohibited. "With this law we protect children from harmful and permanent medical procedures," Noem said in a statement.
Utah
Spencer Cox governor of Utah, announced a ban on gender reassignment surgeries on children except in special cases that are "clinically necessary.” This law, called S.B.16, will go into effect on May 3. Cox clarified the rationale for moving forward with this legislation:
More and more experts, states and countries around the world are pausing these permanent and life-altering treatments for new patients until more and better research can help determine the long-term consequences. While we understand our words will be of little comfort to those who disagree with us, we sincerely hope that we can treat our transgender families with more love and respect as we work to better understand the science and consequences behind these procedures. A health care provider may provide a hormonal transgender treatment to a minor only if the health care provider has been treating the minor for gender dysphoria for at least six months.
Alabama
Alabama banned sex-change procedures for children, including drugs and surgeries, and warned that it would jail doctors who do not comply with the rule. Under the bill, teachers and school employees are prohibited from encouraging children to withhold information from their parents about their gender confusion.
This legislation only considered two exceptions: male circumcision and the treatment of medically verifiable sexual disorders, such as chromosomal irregularities.
Arizona
Doug Ducey, former governor of Arizona, signed a bill into law in March of last year banning medical gender transition procedures for minors, as well as male participation in women's sports.
Among the surgeries that are not allowed on minors are mastectomies, breast augmentation and surgeries in which doctors reconstruct the genitals to resemble those of the opposite sex. Ducey argued that the treatments "would drastically affect the rest of a person's life, including his or her ability to become a biological parent later in life."
South Carolina and Oklahoma
A report from September 2022 showed that a South Carolina hospital was providing transgender treatment to youth ages 4 to 18. Republicans added an amendment that temporarily blocked funding to cover gender transition procedures at that health center. State officials floated the idea of introducing legislation that would permanently ban minors from receiving sex change treatments.
In February, the South Carolina General Assembly introduced a bill to make it illegal for people under the age of 21 to undergo gender transition procedures. In addition, this measure requires individuals over the age of 21 who seek medical care to change sex to first obtain a referral from their "primary care physician and a referral from a licensed psychiatrist who must certify that the individual has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria or a similar condition by the psychiatrist and that the psychiatrist believes that gender transition procedures would be appropriate for the individual."
The bill introduced in Oklahoma follows in the wake of the South Carolina bill. In this case, those practitioners who do not respect the rule would be prosecuted for a felony that would carry a prison sentence of five years. Oklahoma Republican Senator David Bullard noted that "surgical and chemical genital mutilation has been occurring in our great state, and it must stop." Donations of public funds to organizations that promote this type of practice are also prohibited. A few days ago, a transgender group stormed the state Senate to protest legislation that would restrict them from medical care related to gender reassignment.
North Dakota
The state House of Representatives passed a bill to ban transgender treatment for minors. Along the same lines as other states, physicians are prohibited from performing sex change surgeries. If they do so, they will receive a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of around $20,000.
In addition, they would also be prosecuted if they prescribe puberty blockers or hormones.
Missisippi
Governor Tate Reeves signed the Regulate Experimental Experimental Adolescent Procedures Act (REAP), which prohibits minors from receiving hormone treatments or undergoing surgical procedures to change their sex. In addition, such procedures will not be eligible for public funding or Medicaid.
Other states and countries
Republican lawmakers in Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia or Wyoming are pursuing efforts to ban sex change surgeries and hormone treatments for children under 18.
In Sweden the National Board of Health and Welfare announced that it was stopping hormone therapy for minors, except in very specific cases.
