This week, Tennessee Republicans introduced a bill that would ban transgender surgeries and treatments for minors.
If approved, the Protecting Children from Gender Mutilation Act, introduced by state Rep. William Lamberth and state Sen. Jack Johnson, would prohibit doctors from performing gender transition surgeries on and prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors. Additionally, patients and their families would be allowed to sue doctors, hospitals and clinics for using such treatments.
Anyone in violation of the legislation could face a fine of up to $25,000 per violation, Faithwire reports.
“This bill is about protecting children. Under no circumstances should minors be allowed to undergo irreversible elective procedures to mutilate body parts and intentionally harm their reproductive systems. This practice comes with lifelong health complications that children are not capable of understanding,” Johnson said in a statement.
The introduction of the bill comes after viral videos posted in September by conservative commentator Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire showed that medical personnel at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) celebrated the hospital’s “transgender clinic,” which first opened in 2018, as a “big money maker.”
In one clip from the VUMC, one woman is heard sharing that medical staff would be offering “gender-affirming hormones” and “pubertal blockers” to minors as young as 13.
Meanwhile, in another video taken in November 2019, Vanderbilt law professor Dr. Ellen Clayton told VUMC employees that staffers who object to transgender-based treatments due to religious beliefs should face “consequences.”
Last month, as Christian Headlines previously reported, VUMC permanently suspended all permanent transgender surgeries for minors following backlash and concerns about the clinic’s practices.
On Wednesday, Walsh responded to a critic who accused him of being ineffective in his recent efforts.
“In the last month, I took down the child gender clinic at Vanderbilt and got the procedures banned across my entire state,” Walsh tweeted. “Other than that, yeah, I guess I haven’t been very productive recently.”
In related news, the Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine voted to ban transgender surgeries, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers for minors last week.
Reporting by Christian Headlines.
