Florida House panel to debate bill criminalizing sex-change surgeries & puberty blockers for kids, as 5 other states consider bans

RT

A bill that could make it a felony to perform sex-change surgeries on minors as well as inject them with drugs to delay puberty is set to go before a Florida House subcommittee next week, as more states eyeing similar motions.

The ‘Vulnerable Child Protection Act’ will be on the agenda of the Florida House Quality subcommittee as it meets on Monday.

The bill is sponsored by Republican Rep. Anthony Sabatini, who has long opposed the practice that permits a doctor to treat underage patients suffering from ‘gender dysphoria’ with medicine that slows the onset of puberty and to perform sex-change surgeries on them, providing their parents OK the procedure.

“Common sense,” the lawmaker tweeted on Saturday, welcoming the news of his proposal moving forward.

Common sense https://t.co/WVeJMmi9Z5

— Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) February 1, 2020

If passed, the law would make it a second-degree felony for any health care provide to engage in the activity aimed at altering a minor’s sex.

When he filed the bill back in January, the lawmaker compared the sex-changing treatment to maiming, tweeting that “no parent should be allowed to sterilize or permanently disfigure a child.”

Today I filed HB 1365, the Vulnerable Child Protection Act. This Bill makes it a felony for a health care practitioner to surgically or medically change the sex of a minor. No parent should be allowed to sterilize or permanently disfigure a child. https://t.co/8fsi61HAPM

— Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) January 13, 2020

The proposed law has drawn swift pushback from Democrats, arguing that the bill outlaws “life-saving healthcare treatment” to teenagers that have not yet come of age. The critics of the ban argue that children that are not able to receive such treatment are at a higher risk of depression and suicide.

Speaking to the Blaze on Saturday, Sabatini accused Democrats in the Republican-controlled legislature, who attempt to shoot down his proposal, of “furthering a political agenda” at the expense of children’s health. Citing medical findings on the issue, the lawmaker said that about 80 percent of children tend to “outgrow” their body dysphoria.

While the Florida bill has yet many hoops to go through before it can become a law, a similar bill already cleared the House of Representatives in South Dakota. Approved on Wednesday, it bans doctors from prescribing puberty blockers to anyone under 16 as well as outlaws sex reassignment surgery.

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The bill, that still has to receive the green light from the state’s senate, sparked major backlash among liberals and LGTBQ advocacy groups. The Human Rights Campaign, largest LGBTQ lobbying and advocacy group in the US, eviscerated the motion, accusing the bill’s sponsor Rep. Fred Deutsch of “spreading misinformation and using vicious, harmful rhetoric while doing so.”

A host of similar bills have been at different stages of progress at least in four other US states. The list includes Colorado, Oklahoma, South Carolina and  Missouri, where it would not only penalize doctors, but also label parents giving nod to the sex-altering treatment child abusers.

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February 01, 2020 at 03:13PM
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