BATON ROUGE (LifeSiteNews) – The Louisiana legislature overturned the state governor’s veto of a bill that bans puberty blockers, hormones, and “sex change” surgeries for minors.
In a one-day veto session on Tuesday, the Louisiana House voted 75-23 and the Senate 28-11 to overturn Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ veto of H.B. 648, dubbed the “Stop Harming Our Kids” Act.
Three Democrats voted with the Republican legislature’s two-thirds majority, while Republican state senator Fred Mills, who previously voted to kill the bill in committee in May, voted with the Democrats, the Daily Caller reported.
The override of Bel Edwards’ veto marks the third time since 1974 that the Louisiana legislature overruled a gubernatorial veto. Bel Edwards vetoed the legislation late last month.
READ: Louisiana bans ‘transgender’ males from women’s sports despite governor’s opposition
According to the bill, minors cannot access so-called “gender affirming” interventions, such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and “sex change” surgeries. An exception to the ban, however, is given for those born with a “medically verifiable disorder of sexual development.”
The bill further stipulates that if a health care professional finds that the immediate cessation of such drugs would “cause harm” to a minor already taking them, then the child must be weaned off the drugs by no later than New Year’s Eve next year. Health care professionals found to have violated the provisions of the bill will be subject to the loss of their medical license for a period of two years.
Despite the legislature’s successful override of Bel Edwards’ veto of H.B. 648, it failed to override his vetoes on two other LGBT-related bills.
One, H.B. 466, would have been a provision similar to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Law, banning discussion of gender ideology and “sexual orientation” in Louisiana schools in grades K-12. Another, H.B. 81, would have limited the use of names and pronouns to those approved by a student’s parents, as well as protecting teachers from being forced to use names and pronouns of students against their conscience.
In a statement released to Twitter explaining his veto of H.B. 648, Bel Edwards, a professed Catholic, claimed that the bill “needlessly harms a very small population of vulnerable children, their families, and their health care professionals.”
In fact, transgender surgeries and drugs have been linked to permanent physical and psychological damage, including cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, cancer, stroke, infertility, and suicidality, in addition to asserting a false reality that one’s sex can be changed, as LifeSite has extensively reported. Further, studies indicate that over 80 percent of children suffering from gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence without surgical or pharmaceutical intervention.
READ: England’s ban on puberty blockers exposes Biden, Trudeau for the LGBT extremists they are
Bel Edwards also said that he “expect[s] the courts to throw out this unconstitutional bill, as well.”
A similar bill enacted by the Arkansas legislature in 2021, despite the veto of the state’s then-Governor Republican Asa Hutchison, was blocked by a judge last month. The state’s Attorney General, Republican Tim Griffin, has vowed to challenge the ruling. However, this month, a federal appeals court upheld a similar law passed by Tennessee in March.
Louisiana’s “Stop Harming Our Kids” Act is set to take effect on New Year’s Day next year.
The bill follows a series of laws in Republican-run states that target transgender interventions and gender ideology.
In May, for instance, Florida governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis signed a similar bill, banning transgender procedures for minors in the Sunshine State, as well as laws that bar venues from hosting “adult live performances” with children present and prohibit schools from forcing children to state their pronouns.
LifeSiteNews has launched an interactive map tracking states that pass laws against transgender surgeries and drugs.
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