HELENA, Montana (LifeSiteNews) — Montana became the latest state to prohibit minors from being chemically or surgically mutilated through transgender drugs and surgeries, joining North Dakota just a week after that state instituted similar protections for gender-confused kids.
Senate Bill 99, signed on Friday by Republican Governor Greg Gianforte, prohibits a variety of scientifically unsound and potentially dangerous drugs and surgeries, including “a vaginectomy, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, ovariectomy, reconstruction of the urethra, metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, scrotoplasty, implantation of erection or testicular protheses, subcutaneous mastectomy, voice surgery, or pectoral implant.”
It also prohibits “surgical procedures, including a penectomy, orchiectomy, vaginoplasty, clitoroplasty, vulvoplasty, augmentation mammoplasty, facial feminization surgery, voice surgery, thyroid cartilage reduction, or gluteal augmentation” as well as puberty blockers.
The legislation also allows for suspension of medical licenses for healthcare professionals who violate the law and allows for parents to sue providers who surgically or chemically mutilate children.
There are exceptions for intersex individuals. Intersex and transgender are not the same thing, as explained here by LifeSiteNews’s Jeremy Williamson.
The bill’s debate and passage heated up, when a gender-confused male Democrat said he hoped his Republican peers would see “blood on [their] hands” the next time they prayed.
Montana Republicans barred a “transgender” Democrat lawmaker from speaking on the state House floor until apologizing for claiming colleagues would have “blood on their hands” if they supported a ban on surgical and chemical “transition” procedures for minors, LifeSiteNews previously reported.
Rep. “Zooey” Zephyr, a male who “identifies” as female, made remarks last week denouncing S.B. 99 claiming that “if you are forcing a trans child to go through puberty when they are trans, that is tantamount to torture.”
“I hope the next time there’s an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,” he added.
Gov. Gianforte had previously signaled his support for the bill. He wrote in a letter to legislators in mid-April that the legislation “protects Montana children from permanent, life-altering medical procedures until they are adults, mature enough to make such serious decisions,” according to the Associated Press.
“The transgender industry has taken another defeat,” reacted Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project. “Despite their attempts to gaslight the country into believing that this dangerous medical malpractice is somehow ‘life-saving care,’ more and more states are seeing through the lies. In reality, these sterilizing drugs and mutilating surgeries are anything but necessary, and it is critical that we protect kids from being pushed down this damaging pathway that will have lifelong consequences.”
It is not possible for individuals to change their sex, and even adults who have attempted to present themselves as the opposite sex have come to regret the decision.
For example, “Scott” Newgent is a woman who “transitioned” at the age of 42, but later regretted it.
Newgent told Jonathan Van Maren that people are not “born in the wrong body,” calling transgenderism a “choice” and a “creation” that destroys the lives of most people who go through with it.
“I think they’ve catapulted this into an epidemic, honestly, and it’s targeting people in our society that are the most vulnerable,” Newgent said.
Political opposition to mutilating developing kids grows, as evidence shows dangers
Montana and North Dakota are not the only states that have moved to protect kids from making life-altering, potentially sterilizing decisions before they can legally consent to tattoos or obtain drivers’ licenses, for example.
Arkansas, for example, prohibits the transgender drugs and surgeries for minors, and Governor Sarah Sanders recently signed legislation which makes it possible for gender-confused individuals to sue medical professionals for chemical and surgical mutilation. Indiana joined Tennessee, South Dakota, Iowa, and Mississippi in enacting laws this year that prohibit the use of puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and surgeries in the name of “gender transitions” for minors, as previously reported by LifeSiteNews. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has taken executive action against the procedures while legislation works its way through the legislature.
The opposition to medical “transitions” comes during a time when evidence continues to mount to disprove the alleged benefits of such drugs and procedures.
For example, a gender clinic founder and former consultant to the American Psychiatric Association recently shared her regrets with pushing puberty blockers on kids. The puberty blockers are “not as reversible as we always thought, and they have longer term effects on kids’ growth and development, including making them sterile and quite a number of things affecting their bone growth,” Dr. Susan Bradley recently said.
Endocrinologist Dr. Michael Laidlaw concluded in his analysis that puberty blockers generally lead people to more hormones and surgeries, even though “[a majority of] children who experience gender dysphoria but are allowed to go through puberty normally,…do not persist in identifying with the opposite sex.”
Research into the alleged benefits of transgender drugs and surgeries often suffers from low standards, according to an official review conducted by Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo. The analysis concluded that there is “a lack of conclusive evidence” for “gender transitioning” and “the potential for long-term, irreversible effects,” and noted that systematic reviews on hormonal interventions “show a trend of low-quality evidence, small sample sizes, and medium to high risk of bias.”
LifeSiteNews recently published a series on the harms of transgenderism, sourcing material from credible medical experts, social scientists, and “detransitioners.” The latter are gender-confused individuals who began to take drugs and/or underwent surgery to present as the opposite sex but have since stopped and regret their actions. The entire series with links to sources and further information can be read here.