So far this year, at least 21 states across the U.S. have introduced legislation intended to criminalize gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth. A new report reveals just how deadly these bans could be.
The Williams Institute, a pro-LGBTQ+ think tank at the University of California, Los Angeles, released a study on Monday finding that 45,000 trans youth could potentially lose access to lifesaving gender-affirming healthcare if all of the state bans were to pass. In Texas, which has pushed a nation-leading six bills in 2021 targeting medical care for trans youth, an estimated 13,800 kids over the age of 13 would lose their health care if these bills are signed into law.
Among the states where the largest number of youth would be affected are Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee, where the passage of anti-trans medical care bans would result in a combined 19,650 trans young people would be unable to receive the affirming treatment they need.
While the language of these bills can vary from state to state, one of their main goals is to make it a crime for medical professionals to provide gender-affirming care to trans youth, such as puberty blockers to delay endogenous puberty. Some bills, such as legislation debated this week in Texas, would go as far as classifying this kind of care under the definition of “child abuse.”
In addition to targeting doctors who provide gender-affirming care, these proposals often contain other provisions intended to limit and penalize trans youth and their families. The Williams Institute also reports that in six states — Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas — parents of trans youth could be penalized or even criminalized for encouraging or helping their children access gender affirming healthcare.
Four states — Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina — have provisions that would prohibit school employees (and in the case of North Carolina, all employees of the state) from withholding information about a child’s trans status from their parents, essentially giving teachers the power to out students to their parents and potentially placing youth in unsafe situations.
Three states also include insurance-related provisions in their bills. One is Arkansas, which already prohibits insurance providers from covering gender-affirming medical care for minors and does not require insurance plans to cover gender-affirming medical care for patients of any age.
Last week, the Natural State became the first to enact legislation limiting trans youth access to gender-affirming care, when the Arkansas State Legislature overrode governor Asa Hutchinson’s initial veto of HB 1570. The bill, which was called “single most extreme anti-trans law” ever enacted in the U.S., will impact at least 1,450 trans youth currently living in the state, according to The Williams Institute.
Their study reports that nine other states are currently actively considering similar legislation: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
