The Idaho House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday to ban providing puberty blockers, transgender surgeries, and other transgender-related procedures to children.
The bill would criminalize doctors providing minors with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or sexual reassignment surgeries. Offenders would be charged with a felony and could face up to 10 years in prison, according to WFXR. The bill will now pass to the state Senate, although Idaho Senate Republicans have been ambiguous about whether or not they will vote in favor.
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The bill was celebrated by conservatives, but strongly condemned by progressive opponents, who claim it will increase suicide among the youth and criminalize essential healthcare for LGBT children.
The ban on sexual reassignment surgery appears to be preemptive, as there are currently no clinics offering sexual reassignment surgery in the state, according to the bill’s sponsor. The ban on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones follows a pattern advocated by Republicans in several other states.
On Sunday, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) signed similar legislation called the “Help Not Harm Bill,” which banned the same procedures as Idaho’s.
Meanwhile, progressives condemned the Idaho bill as discriminatory and harmful.
“Gender-affirming care is time-sensitive and life-saving,” Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, told the Associated Press. “Patients, families, and healthcare providers, no one else should decide what care is in the best interest of transgender youth, in accordance with current medical best practices.”
The American College of Pediatricians, a conservative medical advocacy group, condemned the transgender procedures banned in the Idaho bill, which are treated as essential by progressive advocacy groups.
“There is not a single long-term study to demonstrate the safety or efficacy of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for transgender-believing youth,” it said. “This means that youth transition is experimental, and therefore, parents cannot provide informed consent, nor can minors provide assent for these interventions. Moreover, the best long-term evidence we have among adults shows that medical intervention fails to reduce suicide.”
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The American College of Pediatricians went on to write that puberty blockers and hormone therapy may be the cause of health issues such as “osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility. In addition to the harm from Lupron, cross-sex hormones put youth at an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers across their lifespan.”
