The South Dakota legislature has passed a bill that would make it illegal to perform gender “affirming” surgery or prescribe puberty blockers to minors in the state.
The bill, which was passed in a vote of 30–4, would also force health care professionals who violate it to lose their licenses and be sued. The measure will now go to the desk of Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, who has indicated she will sign the bill into law.
House Bill 1080 aims to restrict medical professionals from providing certain medical interventions to minors if the aim is to alter the appearance or validate the perception of the minor’s gender identity when it is inconsistent with their biological sex.
The bill defines “sex” as the biological indicators of male and female as determined by chromosomes, hormones, gonads, and genitalia present at birth.
Some exceptions allow treatments already in progress to continue and for those diagnosed as born “with a medically proven disorder of sexual development,” but the overriding rule limits, reduces, or prohibits chemical interventions on minors that delay normal puberty. Ignoring the law could result in losing the right to practice medicine in the state.
Once a person reaches the age of majority, they are free to pursue legal treatments at their discretion, but there is a high probability that they will have (literally) grown out of it. Assuming the Transtasi public education system hasn’t waterboarded them with allusions of discrimination to the point that they’ve killed themselves.
Governor Noem has said she would sign the bill into law when it reaches her desk.
