© Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesProtesters hold placards inside the Indiana Statehouse as the Indiana Senate's Health and Provider Services Committee considers SB480, February 23, 2023.
On Tuesday, Governor Brad Little (R., Idaho) signed a bill that would criminalize physicians and medical practitioners who provide hormone treatments, puberty blockers, and/or surgeries to minors.
"In signing this bill, I recognize our society plays a role in protecting minors from surgeries or treatments that can irreversibly damage their healthy bodies," Little wrote in a letter addressed to state lawmakers upon signing the bill. "However, as policymakers we should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children."
State Democrats have condemned the legislation.
"He [Little] just took away the rights of loving parents to make medical decisions for their children and criminalized treatments proven to reduce suicidality among transgender youth," Lauren Necochea, the chair of Idaho's Democratic Party, tweeted adding she was "furious and heartbroken," about the initiative.
Comment: :"Loving parents" would not allow the permanent physical mutilation of their children.
"This bill is going to throw gasoline on that problem," Democratic state representative Chris Mathia told the Associated Press in mid-February when it passed through the Idaho House.
A similar bill was signed on Wednesday by Indiana governor Eric Holcomb which blocks minors from accessing hormone therapy and surgery and caps those currently undergoing such procedures to stop by the end of 2023.
"Permanent gender-changing surgeries with lifelong impacts and medically prescribed preparation for such a transition should occur as an adult, not as a minor," Holcomb said of the bill.
The bill's author, Republican state senator Tyler Johnson, expressed a similar sentiment in late February.
© Indiana Senate RepublicansIndiana State Sen. Tyler Johnson, R-Leo
The Indiana and Idaho chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have since filed lawsuits challenging their respective new state laws.
"The legislature did not ban the various treatments that are outlined," Ken Falk, the legal director of the Indiana ACLU branch told the AP. "It only banned it for transgender persons."
Michael Suk, a board member of the American Medical Association (AMA), argued along similar lines. "Gender-affirming care is medically-necessary, evidence-based care that improves the physical and mental health of transgender and gender-diverse people," Suk told CBS News.
Over a dozen mostly Republican states have enacted new laws curtailing minors' access to gender-reassignment surgeries.
Comment: As the ranks of detransitioners grows, it is heartening to see preventive measures being put into place, at least at the state level.
- Rate of detransition among 'trans' youth higher than activists claim
- Ex-Navy SEAL who detransitioned warns transgender teens: 'You need to slow down'
- 60 Minutes detransition story sparks major backlash from trans activists
- The ranks of gender detransitioners are growing. We need to understand why
- Trans woman returns to life as man and takes aim at the 'activist' doctor who upended his life
- 'Do not transition your kids': California teen tells her heartbreaking story in support of DeSantis plan
- Minnesota advances 'trans refuge' bill opponents say would strip custody from non-consenting parents
- California to facilitate mastectomies for young girls in the name of progress
- Seattle Children's Hospital offers medicalized gender transition to 9-year-olds
The same day Indiana signed its bill into law, the Arkansas Senate sent a new piece of legislation to the desk of Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders requiring parental approval prior to teachers using a student's preferred pronouns.
A similar bill was recently passed in Florida by the DeSantis administration.
Indiana's new law comes into force on July 1, while Idaho's will not go live until January 2024.
Ari Blaff is a news writer for National Review. His writing has appeared in Tablet Magazine, Quillette, City Journal, and Newsweek. He holds a Master's from the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and writes from Toronto, Canada.
Reader Comments
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Frankly I think too many rules just ruin everything.
I've been a fool, I've been fooled, I fool around, foolish sometimes I feel, but if I feel like I'm learning, then to be honest I don't mind if I'm a fool or others think I am!
T hat is a very important point.
And another point. Exactly how many children are asking for these surgeries? And are ANY of those asking for teatments doing so with NO so-called education on the subject? In other words, any kids who have never been told they could be in the "wrong" body, never been exposed to the subject in any way. Are they asking for treatment? I seriously doubt it.
So do I and excellent points.
Corp speak rule #1. Never, ever, talk about the real issues and truth about the problem, only talk about the points that have nothing to do with the reality of the situation.
Like turdo's non answer, answer 5 times to the Y or N question, even when presented the non spoken truth (internal procedures) that he is and was the first to be informed by CSIS about CPP contributions to him and other party members.
Fracturing Identity at the Altar of Transhumanism is the lie.