Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a bill into law on Friday, banning gender-transition healthcare for children.
The law goes into effect on Sept. 1, and forbids healthcare providers in the state from performing surgeries related to gender transition to children. Likewise, healthcare providers are also not allowed to prescribe hormones or puberty blockers to children under the law.
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Those who are found violating this law could have their medical license revoked.
Several exceptions are given in the law to children already undergoing gender transition, such as those currently receiving hormones or puberty blockers and children who have attended 12 or more sessions of mental health counseling over a period of at least six months before they began treatment. However, the law requires that these children are slowly taken off them “in a manner that is safe and medically appropriate.”
The American Civil Liberties Union issued a statement on May 18 that it would file a lawsuit over this law.
The organization claimed that Texas lawmakers “are hellbent on joining the growing roster of states determined to jeopardize the health and lives of transgender youth, in direct opposition to the overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence supporting this care as appropriate and necessary. Transgender youth in Texas deserve the support and care necessary to give them the same chance to thrive as their peers.”
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The new law comes as Republican lawmakers across the country are attempting to limit gender transition procedures for children in multiple different states. Former Rep. Mayra Flores (R-TX) praised Texas’s new law on Saturday morning.
SB 14 Banning gender modification procedures on minors has been signed by Governor Abbott.
God Bless Texas 🇺🇸
— Mayra Flores (@MayraFlores2022) June 3, 2023
Last month, Nebraska joined the growing number of Republican states that have banned transition surgeries for children; Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) also passed an abortion ban prohibiting abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy. While the abortion ban went into effect immediately with Pillen’s signature, the transition ban will go into effect on Oct. 1.
