ATLANTA (LifeSiteNews) — The Georgia state Senate recently approved a bill which would ban so-called cross-sex hormones and mutilating surgeries for gender confused minors but permit the continued use of puberty blockers.
On Monday, all Senate Republicans supported the legislation in a 33–22 vote. The bill now heads to the Republican-led House for further discussion and a second vote.
“The General Assembly finds that there has been a massive unexplained rise in diagnoses of gender dysphoria among children over the past ten years, with most of those experiencing this phenomenon being girls,” SB 140 states.
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Continuing, the bill notes that “[g]ender dysphoria is often comorbid with other mental health and developmental conditions, including autism spectrum disorder. A significant portion of children with gender dysphoria do not persist in their gender dysphoric conditions past early adulthood.”
Both the Official Code of Georgia and the Georgia Composite Medical Board are required to update their guidelines to prohibit “sex reassignment surgeries” and “hormone replacement therapies” for children under the age of 18. However, the legislation does not restrict the use of puberty blockers in any way.
New rules and regulations are expected to be drawn up by the respective state departments. Exceptions to the ban include “treatments for medical conditions other than gender dysphoria or for the purpose of sex reassignment where such treatments are deemed medically necessary; treatments for individuals born with a medically verifiable disorder of sex development, including individuals born with ambiguous genitalia or chromosomal abnormalities resulting in ambiguity regarding the individual’s biological sex; [and] treatments for individuals with partial androgen insensitivity syndrome.”
Children who began cross-sex hormone use before July 1, 2023, are also permitted to continue the drug protocol, which produces irreversible effects. Medical professionals who violate the ban will be “held administratively accountable to the board” but will not be “held civilly liable for damages,” including criminal responsibility for any “injury, death, or loss to person or property on the basis that such physician did or did not comply” with the law.
READ: Mississippi governor signs law banning ‘dangerous’ transgender drugs, surgeries for minors
The legislation also points out that “no large-scale studies have tracked” the impact of surgeries and drugs on gender confused minors and emphasizes that these so-called treatments “have permanent and irreversible effects.”
“Under the principle of ‘do no harm,’ taking a wait-and-see approach to minors with gender dysphoria, providing counseling, and allowing the child time to mature and develop his or her own identity is preferable to causing the child permanent physical damage.”
The bill’s language added that the Georgia General Assembly “has an obligation to protect children, whose brains and executive functioning are still developing, from undergoing unnecessary and irreversible medical treatment.”
Studies on hormonal and surgical intervention for gender confusion show that they lead to significant mental and physical health problems.
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An October 2022 study found that cases of gender dysphoria among minors between the ages of 6 and 17 in the United States tripled from 2017 to 2021, pointing to social contagion and peer pressure as a key factor in gender confusion.
In January, mainstream media portrayed new data as evidence for improved mental health among children receiving medical intervention while belittling the fact that “the most common adverse event was suicidal ideation,” leading two study participants to take their own lives.
A February study also found “substantially increased risk” of serious cardiac issues among those taking cross-sex hormones. The research showed that these individuals face nearly seven times the risk of stroke and six times the risk of heart attack.
Amid the rise in medical intervention for gender confusion, state leaders across the country have begun banning the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery for gender confused minors. In 2023 alone, laws prohibiting these so-called treatments in the name of “gender transition” have been passed in South Dakota, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
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