Texas bans medical care for transgender children

The Texas Equality campaign group protests the new bill at the State Capitol Building. Photo: Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman/AP

Texas will become the largest US state to ban medical care for children with gender reassignment, including those who have already started the process.

Legislative the Republican-majority Texas body passed the law on Wednesday. this will block access to hormonal drugs and drugs that block puberty, as well as to operations for people under 18 years old.

The bill would require teen patients who have already started transitioning to «wean» themselves off any medication for an indefinite period of time. It has now been approved by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who previously ordered Child Protective Services to investigate such treatment as abuse.

Physicians in Texas will be prohibited from prescribing drugs that can cause temporary or permanent infertility, as well as from performing a mastectomy or surgery that sterilizes a child or removes otherwise healthy parts of the body.

Texas is poised to join 17 other states that have introduced similar bans.

It's a felony for assisting with gender reassignment in Alabama, Florida, Idaho, North Dakota, and Oklahoma.

Rep. Dade Phelan takes the final vote on the bill in the House of Representatives in Austin, Texas. Photo: Mikala Compton/Austin American- Statesman via AP

Physicians expressed their opposition to a bill preventing access to gender-affirming care.

Six health associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in 2021 that they «strongly oppose any legislation or regulation that can interfere with the provision of evidence-based care to any patient.”

This means that “people of different sexes” should receive gender-reaffirming care, they added.

A Washington Post poll found that a majority of Americans oppose having transgender children receive puberty-blocking drugs and hormone therapy.

This bill is one of several transgender rights proposals being considered by the Texas Legislature , which is dominated by Republicans.

On Wednesday, the state House of Representatives voted to pass a measure requiring public college athletes to compete in sex competitions. written on their birth certificate at the time of birth.

This sparked protests that resulted in two people being arrested while the Texas House debated the bill.

In 2022, Governor Abbott instructed the Texas Committee child protection agency to investigate child abuse against parents if their children received gender-confirming medical care.

The Williams Institute, an LGBTQ research center, estimates that there are approximately 30,000 transgender children in Texas of the age of from 13 to 17 years old.< /p>