South Carolina Republicans back trans youth health care ban despite pushback from parents, doctors
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Pleas from pediatricians and parents of transgender children to continue giving such children hormone therapies failed to stop Republican lawmakers from bringing a ban on those treatments to the South Carolina House floor on Wednesday.
The GOP-led Committee on Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs voted to advance the bill within the first two days of the 2024 legislative session. At least 22 states have introduced similar restrictions amid recent Republican-led crackdowns on transgender medical care, bathroom use and sports participation.
The swift move underscores the priority Republicans in the South Carolina House are placing on the conservative issue at the start of an election year that will pit incumbents against primary challengers from the right.
The bill would ban health care professionals from performing gender transition surgeries, prescribing puberty-blocking drugs and overseeing hormone therapy for anyone under 18. It also prevents Medicaid from covering such care for anyone under age 26.
Matt Sharp, senior counsel for a national Christian conservative advocacy group called Alliance Defending Freedom, appeared virtually the only public witness supporting the bill. Sharp, an out-of-state attorney, argued that children susceptible to “peer pressure” could suffer irreversible negative consequences later in life if “experimental procedures” continue.
Major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, endorse transgender youth care as safe when administered properly.
South Carolina pediatricians emphasized that minors in the state do not undergo gender transition surgery and that the other forms of care are lifesaving for young people who might otherwise turn to self-harm. Treatments take place with the consent of the “fully involved” parents, according to Dr. Deborah Greenhouse. The pediatrician, who said she has cared for a number of transgender children in the field for more than 30 years, added that minors do not begin using such drugs until puberty begins.
Greenhouse said the proposed ban would make the already difficult path for transgender youth to get medical care “even more torturous and virtually impossible to navigate.”
Retired Navy officer Dave Bell and Rebecca Bell, a software integrator, testified that their 15-year-old transgender daughter’s “painful journey” ultimately alleviated her anxiety and depression, noting that she expressed a wish to die before they let her live as a young girl. They said their family visited an endocrinologist seven times over a three-year period before their daughter started puberty blockers. Their daughter has been seeing mental health counselors, including a gender therapist, for more than seven years.
Eric Childs of Pelzer said it is up to his 15-year-old transgender son to decide whether to undergo hormone replacement therapy and not up to lawmakers. He said his son has not yet started treatment, but the family wants to make sure he has all medically recommended options. None of their health care decisions were made “on a whim,” he added.
“Absolutely every last bit of it was a conversation: anxious, concerned, whatever we could do for his sake,” Childs, who identified himself as a combat veteran, told the Associated Press.
In addition to banning gender transition surgery, puberty-blocking drugs and hormone therapies for minors, the bill would prohibit school employees from withholding knowledge about a student’s transgender identity from their legal guardians. Opponents labeled this provision a “forced out” that would put vulnerable children from loveless households at risk of homelessness and domestic violence. Democrats say the move will overburden teachers who are not trained to recognize gender dysphoria.
Republican state Rep. Jordan Pace said that when he was an educator, he believes he would have neglected his duty if he ever hid such information from his parents.
“Parents need to know what’s going on in their child’s life,” said Republican state Rep. Thomas Beach.
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Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.