Two more states join the growing list with moves to restrict gender-affirming ... trends now
Missouri and Louisiana inched closer toward banning transition care for trans youth, building upon a tsunami of state efforts to restrict access to puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and reassignment surgeries.
The majority of state-led initiatives restricting gender-affirming care have applied to minors, with many voices on the right concerned over what they argue is abuse with far more risks than benefits to a child’s mental and physical wellbeing.
But those arguments run counter to messaging from major medical organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association, which support using treatments like puberty blockers as ‘medically necessary’.
Missouri’s Republican Gov Mike Parson signed a bill into law on Wednesday that prohibits doctors from performing gender transition surgeries or prescribing hormone therapy or other drugs for gender transition to under-18s.
Meanwhile, in Louisiana, the state senate resurrected a once-presumed-dead bill banning hormone treatments, transition surgeries, and puberty blockers for trans minors there.
At least 20 states have taken steps to restrict or fully ban transition healthcare for trans youth
Most youth who have spoken with mental health professionals and caregivers and decide to transition with a start with puberty blockers (shown) medically
The fight over transgender healthcare access reached a fever pitch in early 2022 when Texas' Republican Gov Greg Abbott issued a state-wide order that parents found to be sanctioning transition care for their children could be investigated for child abuse.
The investigations ordered by Gov Abbott were the first of their kind and jumpstarted a fight over healthcare specifically.
Louisiana Republicans resuscitated the bill after a failed attempt last month to advance it out of committee for a full vote.
The legislation passed in the Senate largely along party lines by a vote of 29 to 10 and will return to the House floor for one final vote, where it is expected to succeed before landing on Gov John Bel Edwards’ desk.
While the House is almost guaranteed to send the legislation to the governor’s office, it is unclear whether Mr Edwards will sign it into law.
Edwards is a Democrat – a conservative one but a Democrat nonetheless – who once rejected a measure that would have barred transgender girls and women from participating on sports teams that match their gender identity.
Gov Edwards billed it as ‘discrimination’ and a ‘solution in
