healthmedicinet

Texas has joined a growing list of states that forbid gender-affirming teen treatment.

A measure that will outlaw hormone treatment, surgery, and puberty blockers for anyone under 18 who wish to transition was signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbot on Friday.

Medical professionals who break the law, which takes effect on September 1, risk having their licenses suspended.

The second-biggest state in the US and the largest state to date to enact the limits is Texas, which also has a sizable transgender population. The measure has already been criticized by opposition organizations as “a threat to health care,” and they have pledged to sue.

Republican congressman and author of the bill Tom Oliverson heralded the governor’s signing as “protection” of children.

He said on Twitter in response to the move, “Children in Texas are officially protected from harmful, experimental medical and surgical treatments for gender dysphoria.”

But activists have hit back. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (ACLU) denounced lawmakers, saying they were “determined to join the growing list of states determined to endanger the health and lives of transgender youth.”

They added that this was “in direct contradiction to the overwhelming amount of scientific and medical evidence.”

“Transgender youth in Texas deserve the support and care needed to give them the same opportunity to thrive as their peers,” a spokesperson said.

Texas law ? dubbed Senate Bill 14 ? includes exceptions to the ban for minors who began treatment before June 1 or those who have attended 12 or more sessions of mental health or psychotherapy for at least six months.

But it says these patients need to be “weaned” off the prescription drugs for an indefinite “period of time.”

The measures were introduced by lawmakers in hopes of avoiding lawsuits against the ban.

Estimates suggest there are about 29,800 youth under the age of 18 who identify as transgender in Texas – the third highest number in the US after New York and California.

The state also ordered child welfare officials to investigate reports of children receiving transgender care as child abuse. A judge has blocked these investigations.

The move comes barely two weeks after Nebraska also restricted transgender care for minors as more Republican states try to block the treatments.

State Governor Jim Pillen signed into law a bill banning hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgery for those under 19 who want to change their sex. In Nebraska, a person is considered a minor until they are 19 years old.

The ban goes into effect on October 1 and exempts people with a ‘medically demonstrable disorder of sex development’.

After signing the law ? which also restricted abortions after 12 weeks gestation ? Governor Pillen called it the “most significant victory for the social-conservative agenda in more than a generation of Nebraska.”

?It’s about protecting our children and saving babies. Pure and simple,’ he said signing the bill while holding friends’ five-day-old daughter with his two eldest granddaughters beside him.

Texas Governor Greg Abbot, pictured, signed the bill into law. It is due to go into effect in the state on September 1

At least 18 states have banned transgender care: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

Florida has limited care through regulation or administrative orders, and Missouri is the only one restricting treatments for adults.

However, bans in three of the states – Oklahoma, Arkansas and Alabama – have been suspended by federal judges while lawsuits are heard.

Republican lawmakers across the country have passed hundreds of measures this year targeting nearly every facet of trans existence.

That includes bans on gender-affirming medical care for minors, restrictions on the types of restrooms transgender people can use, measures restricting classroom teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity, and bills that would eliminate transgender students who want teachers to address them with the pronouns. they use.

The Food and Drug Administration approved puberty blockers 30 years ago to treat children with precocious puberty, which causes sexual development to begin much earlier than normal.

Sex hormones — synthetic forms of estrogen and testosterone — were approved decades ago to treat hormone disorders or as birth control pills.

The FDA has not specifically approved the drugs to treat youth who raise gender questions, but they have been used “off-label” for many years, a common and accepted practice for many medical conditions.

Doctors who treat transgender patients say those decades of use are proof that the treatments aren’t experimental.

Research has shown that transgender youth and adults can be prone to suicidal behavior when forced to live as the gender they were assigned at birth.