Florida lawmakers have introduced a bill that seeks to restrict access to medical care for “transgender” youth and adults, according to a report from The Hill.
Under House Bill 1421, “gender clinical interventions” health care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries, will be outlawed for transgender minors.
Transgender adults will also face additional regulatory hurdles to receive care, including having to submit a written consent form detailing the potential long-term and short-term effects of the care.
The bill also makes it easier for patients to sue their doctors within a 30-year statute of limitations.
Furthermore, healthcare providers or hospital employees in Florida are protected under the bill from “any disciplinary or other recriminatory action” if they refuse to supply gender-affirming care to a consenting adult on “clinical, moral, or religious grounds.”
The measure also bars state health insurance policies and health maintenance policies from covering gender-affirming care.
State Republican Rep. Randy Fine, who is sponsoring the legislation in the state House, said in a tweet that the bill would ensure Florida residents are not forced into funding the “sexual mutilation of adults” and bring justice for “those tricked into this evil.”
Rep. Fine had previously pledged to introduce legislation this year that would make it illegal to provide gender-affirming health care to a minor, stating in a Twitter post that he’s “had enough.”
“The butchering of children will be illegal in Florida, Florida citizens will not be obligated to pay for the sexual mutilation of adults, and those tricked into this evil will have 30 years to sue those who misled them,” Fine tweeted Friday. “That’s HB 1421 and I am proud to file it.”
Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration has already eliminated Medicaid coverage for health care for transgender individuals of all ages.
In February, the state’s medical boards voted to adopt a set of rules that bar transgender youth younger than 18 from receiving puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy.
The legislation filed on Friday also aims to prevent people born in Florida from amending their birth certificate to reflect a sex that is different from their sex assigned at birth, except in cases where genitalia was “unresolvably ambiguous” at birth or in the case of a scrivener’s error, The Hill notes.
Rep. Fine announced his plans last month to run for the Florida Senate District 19 seat in 2024.
