Republican lawmakers in South Carolina are unveiling a bill to ban irreversible, experimental transgender care for anyone under 18 years old.
This month, the state’s Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee voted to advance the bill, H.B. 4643, which would prohibit doctors from performing gender transition surgery, prescribing puberty-blocking drugs and overseeing hormone therapy for anyone under 18 years old. The bill, if it became law, would also prevent Medicaid from covering this type of care for anyone under the age of 26 and would prevent schools from concealing information about a student’s “gender identity” from their parents (via the Associated Press):
Republican state Rep. Jordan Pace said that when he was an educator, he thinks he would have been neglecting his duty if he had he ever concealed such information from parents.
“Parents need to know what’s going on in their child’s life,” Republican state Rep. Thomas Beach said.
Earlier this year, Louisiana joined over 20 other states with laws on the books banning experimental, irreversible so-called “gender-affirming” care for minors. This includes puberty blockers, hormone therapy treatment, and sex reassignment surgery. This ban took effect on Jan. 1, 2024, which Townhall covered.
According to PBS, the state’s “Republican-dominated” legislature overturned a veto on the legislation by outgoing Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards. Reportedly, the state legislature held a one-day veto session, the third time one has been held since 1974. And, it marked the second time lawmakers successfully overrode the governor.
“I think that in this instance, in following other Southern states passing this bill, legislators put politics over people without considering the practical impacts of the bill,” Edwards said in a veto message. “I firmly believe that the legislature has overstepped its authority and is interfering in critical healthcare decisions that only parents should make in consultation with their children and their children’s physicians and psychologists.”
In Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed legislation on Dec. 29 that would have protected minors from this kind of harmful care. Predictably, DeWine faced massive backlash. Days later, DeWine issued an executive order banning transgender surgeries for kids. And, this week, the Ohio House overrode DeWine’s veto of the bill. The state Senate will vote later this month.