Lawmakers in West Virginia passed a bill last week banning transgender surgical procedures for children.
QUICK FACTS:
- West Virginia’s legislature passed a law protecting children from receiving transgender care in the state.
- The bill is now headed to Gov. Jim Justice’s (R) desk for a signature after the state Senate voted 30-2 on the measure.
- If Justice signs the bill, the legislation would ban anyone under the age of 18 from receiving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and genital mutilation surgeries.
- The law does make exceptions for children to receive medical interventions if they pose a risk for suicide.
- Minors given the ability to take the drugs must get the lowest dose possible in order to “treat the psychiatric condition and not for purposes of gender alteration,” the bill says.
REPUBLICAN REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE ON THE GOP PROTECTING CHILDREN:
“The Republican Party has a duty,” Rep. Greene said. “We have a responsibility, and that is to be the party that protects children.”
BACKGROUND:
- Last month, Tennessee also passed a bill preventing healthcare providers from administering cross-sex treatments to minors, including surgeries, devices, and drugs such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
- “Gender dysphoria is a mental health condition that should be treated with love and understanding, therapy, and other appropriate interventions – just as we treat other mental health disorders,” said Republican Tennessee State Representative William Lamberth. “Under no circumstance should we ever allow a child to undergo a procedure that destroys their normal, healthy development.”
- Republicans in Tennessee promised to halt these procedures after reports that Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) was giving hormonal drugs to children as young as 13 as part of the “gender transition process,” and performing mastectomies on adolescent girls to help them transition into male.
