AUSTIN — The Texas House on Tuesday is preparing for what was expected to be a long and heated debate over a bill that would cut off certain medical treatments for transgender youth.
Senate Bill 14 would prohibit doctors from providing gender-affirming treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery “to transition a child’s biological sex” and require the state medical board to revoke the medical licenses of violators. It would also bar taxpayer money from entities or individuals that provide these treatments to minors.
The legislation was amended last month to allow patients who are currently receiving these treatments to remain on them under strict guidelines. Nontransgender minors experiencing issues like precocious puberty, and intersex patients, are not barred from receiving this care.
At least nine other states have signed similar bills into law, some within the last few weeks.
The gender-affirming care legislation is one of several bills advancing in the Legislature that would negatively affect LGBTQ rights, including those that would criminalize drag shows, restrict transgender athletes and regulate the discussion of LGBTQ issues in schools.There are an estimated 29,800 transgender Texans between the ages 13 and 17, according to a recent statistical analysis by the Williams Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles.
The American Medical Association, American Psychological Association and other national physicians’ groups all support age-appropriate and individualized medical treatments for minors experiencing gender dysphoria, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
But the state’s biggest physicians group, the Texas Medical Association, has taken a neutral stance on the legislation and urged legislators to make key changes to it. The group’s position remained unchanged this week, its spokesman confirmed, after transgender advocates issued an open letter condemning its neutrality.
The group called for existing patients to be exempted from the bill’s restrictions.
The version under consideration Tuesday allows minors to continue along their treatment path, without switching medications or beginning a new course of care, if they attended 12 or more sessions with a mental health counselor or psychotherapist in the six months prior to June 1 of this year. Doctors would be required to “wean” them off this care “in a manner that is safe and medically appropriate and that minimizes the risk of complications.”
A majority of the Texas House, which is mostly Republican, has already signed on to support the legislation.
If it passes, the bill will head to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature or veto. Abbott, a Republican, has not taken a public stance on this particular bill but last year directed the state’s child protective services agency to investigate parents of transgender children for child abuse.
That policy was challenged in court and is currently on hold as litigation continues.
