-
More than a dozen states have restricted gender-affirming care for minors across the US.
-
At least four other states have tried or are trying to limit care for adults.
-
The ACLU believes more restrictions on adults are coming.
-
Transgender advocates believe the laws targeting adults violate the rights of people.
(NewsReady.com) – Republicans across the country have heavily focused on protecting children from the transgender agenda. They have passed laws that limit gender-affirming care, saying it’s important to ensure kids are not making permanent decisions about their bodies when they are too young.
Lawmakers in at least four states have turned their attention from children to adults. Advocates believe more red states will follow their example and pass more laws restricting care this year.
Gender-Affirming Care for Adults
Generally speaking, adults have the right to choose what to do with their own bodies. There are no laws restricting how much Botox they can receive or the type of nose job they can get. However, lawmakers in four states have restricted or are trying to restrict the care transgender adults can receive.
According to Axios, as the 2024 legislative sessions began, lawmakers filed more than 150 bills targeting the transgender community. Transgender activists believe more states are going to attempt to restrict care for adults like Florida has. Attorney Chase Strangio, the deputy director of the ACLU’s transgender justice program, said that there “was always a process by which [the organization] saw states slowly encroach into access to care for adults.”
The American Principles Project Communications Director Paul Dupont said that the conservative group’s mission has always been kids, but it supports “any efforts to protect” adults from the “drugs and surgeries [that] are extremely damaging” to them as well.
Florida
In 2023, Florida enacted a law that limited adults’ access to transgender healthcare. The law requires adults to sign an informed consent form. Additionally, physicians must oversee their healthcare related to their transition, and the patient must see the doctor in person. The law made it much harder for trans adults to receive care because many of them had been seeing nurse practitioners over telehealth to receive their hormone therapy.
Another law made it legal for pharmacists and doctors to refuse to treat transgender people.
Ohio
On January 5, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) announced severe restrictions on transgender care for adults. The rules would require them to receive approval from a psychiatrist, endocrinologist, and bioethicist in order to receive gender-affirming care. The doctors would have to report the gender dysphoria diagnosis to the state and detail the treatment plan for the individual.
The rules would become the strictest in the country.
Copyright 2024, NewsReady.com
