Bill to criminalize providing health care for transgender minors clears Idaho House
The Idaho House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would bar gender-affirming medical care for transgender children.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, would alter current state code that outlaws female genital mutilation. The new code would make it a felony to provide minors with puberty blockers, which stop or delay puberty, hormones or transition-related surgeries.
The House passed the bill on a near-party-line vote. Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, a retired physician, opposed it. Other Republicans said the bill will preserve the ability to procreate and would protect children from regretting gender reassignment later in life.
“The ability to procreate is a fundamental right that must be protected,” Skaug said. “Don’t let their bodies be sterilized.”
Rep. Ben Adams, a Nampa Republican, quoted the Bible’s account of gender, after saying his transgender cousin “had a mental health problem.”
Democrats called the bill a “life or death” matter, because transgender youth often face depression or suicide if health care is not available. During a hearing last week, multiple Idaho transgender children testified about their experience with gender-affirming care. One said she is “alive today” because health care was available when she contemplated suicide.
House Assistant Minority Leader Lauren Necochea, D-Boise, said the focus of the bill has been surgeries, but it’s also an “attack” on medications for transgender youth.
“I hope those children know they are perfect and loved just the way they are, trying to live their truth,” Necochea said.
Gender reassignment surgeries for children are rare, a family practice physician previously told the Idaho Statesman. The Idaho Medical Association and the broader American Medical Association oppose legislation, such as Skaug’s bill, that restrict access to health care for transgender people.
Rep. Ned Burns, D-Bellevue, referenced another pending bill that would give workers the right to withhold medical information, such as immunization status, from their employers.
“Countless hours have been spent on this very floor debating medical freedom in the name of” COVID-19, Burns said. “Freedom for me but not freedom for thee.”
The bill now heads to the Senate.
Should the bill become law, Idaho would become the fourth state — after Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee — to ban transition-related care for minors. Legal challenges have already been filed against those laws.
The Idaho bill would likely draw a legal challenge, Skaug said, but he’s confident Idaho “will prevail.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 12:16 PM.
