Indiana and Idaho have become the thirteenth and fourteenth states to ban puberty blockers and sex reassignment surgery for those under 18.
Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, a Republican, signed his state’s ban — which also included hormone therapy — into law yesterday after passing a vote in the legislature.
The new law gives minors who are currently receiving transitional care until the end of the year to stop doing so. As of July 1, transgender youth under the age of 18 will not be allowed access to hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgeries in the state.
The move comes just a day after Idaho Governor Brad Little made it a felony to provide transgender care to minors, saying he was protecting minors from treatments that could cause “irreversible harm.”
They join a growing list of Republican states raising concerns about transgender care for minors, which may be irreversible. But opponents claim they violate children’s human rights.
Two other states have banned transgender care for minors and signed into law
Indiana Republican Governor Eric Holcomb (left) said transitions should happen as an adult, rather than as a child. Idaho’s Republican governor has made it a felony to provide transgender care to minors. Both bans will take effect next year
Medical providers state that some of the care is now prohibited by law, including hormone blockers ‘reversible treatments’. But supporters of the legislation argue there is too little evidence about the long-term health consequences of the treatments.
There is no federal minimum age for providing gender-affirming care to trans youth, including surgery, hormone therapies, and puberty blockers. States have therefore set their own policies, leading to a patchwork of laws in the US.
At the signing of the bill on Wednesday, Holcomb said, “Permanent sex reassignment surgery with lifelong consequences and medically prescribed preparation for such a transition must take place as an adult, not as a minor.”
According to the California-based Williams Institute, there are about 4,100 transgender children in Indiana and 2,100 in Idaho.
Indiana’s ban goes into effect July 1, and youth already in treatment must stop treatment by the end of the year. Some of the medications affected include gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogs, commonly known as puberty blockers, and estrogen supplements that lower the amount of testosterone the body produces.
It also bans sex reassignment surgeries for minors, which hospital representatives in the state say they don’t routinely perform.
Medical guidelines generally do not recommend genital surgery before a child turns 18.
Mr Holcomb said sex change operations and treatments should only be offered to people as adults.
The new Idaho law, signed into law by Governor Brad Little on Tuesday night, will go into effect in January 2024.
Mr Little said: ‘By signing this bill, I recognize that our society has a role to play in protecting minors from surgery or treatment that could irreversibly damage their healthy bodies.
“However, as policymakers, we must be very careful when we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children.”
Gov. Little’s Idaho office said it had received nearly 20,000 calls and 11,500 messages from people in favor of the legislation as of Tuesday night.
Last week, the state also signed a law restricting transgender children’s access to school restrooms. The legislation prohibits students from using locker rooms, changing rooms and bathrooms that do not match their gender assigned at birth.
Gov Little recently vetoed a bill that would allow parents to sue schools and libraries for $2,500 if they contain material deemed “harmful to minors” – defined as material related to homosexuality or “intimate sexual acts’.
Idaho and, more recently, Indiana join at least a dozen other states that have taken steps to ban or severely restrict access to healthcare for transgender people.
In response to Indiana’s law, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — a liberal legal advocacy organization specializing in cases related to reproductive health care, voting rights, and discrimination — filed a legal challenge.
The organization called the move “devastating” for transgender youth.
Ken Falk, ACLU legal director for Indiana, said: “This law would be devastating to trans youth and their families, inflicting serious injuries on them and forcing those who can to uproot their lives and leave the state to access the gender-affirming care they need. .’
Pictured above are protesters in the Indiana senate chamber in February 2023 urging governors not to sign a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors
Bud Light has come under fire this week for using trans TikTok activist Dylan Mulvaney (pictured) to promote its beers. A marketing expert said they had the wrong audience
The case was brought on behalf of four transgender youth, a doctor and a health clinic who allege the law violates the 14th Amendment and Medicaid requirements.
The 47-page lawsuit also asks the court to declare the law unconstitutional and asks to stop the state from enforcing the measure.
At least 12 other states have so far enacted partial or complete bans on transgender care for minors.
Utah, Arizona, South Dakota, Iowa, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Florida all ban transgender care for minors.
Bans in Arkansas and Alabama have been blocked by courts, while West Virginia’s has an exception that allows doctors to prescribe medical therapy if a teen is at risk of self-harm or suicide.
Georgia ban allows limited exception to continue treatment for those who started receiving care before July 1, 2023
And in Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a directive in February 2022 classifying most forms of transgender youth health care as “child abuse.” This amounted to a de facto ban that has had consequences as many as 29,800 transgender youth.
Major medical organizations in the US, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Medical Association, have championed gender-affirming youth care.
President Joe Biden has also expressed support, after meeting with trans TikTok activist Dylan Mulvaney. At the time, he was applauding her “days of girlhood” video series, which he had been watching.
But the US is increasingly becoming an outlier when it comes to transgender care, as there is no federal age limit on treatments.
Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands and parts of other European countries have taken a more cautious approach by imposing age limits on certain transgender treatments.
The editor of the prestigious medical journal BMJ has also warned that trans children in America are undergoing urgent sex reassignment surgery “without any psychological support.”