CONCORD, New Hampshire (LifeSiteNews) — The New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a limited bill to ban specific transgender mutilation surgeries for minors on Thursday, sending the revised legislation to the GOP-controlled Senate, which is expected to approve it.
Lawmakers passed the measure in a mostly party-line 199-175 vote against the opposition of many Democrats and even two Republicans.
If signed by New Hampshire’s moderate Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, House Bill 619 would prohibit health care providers from subjecting minors to genital surgeries and restrict health care providers from sending people under the age of 18 out of state to receive the surgeries, The New Hampshire Bulletin reported.
In its original form, the measure would have banned other transgender surgeries like mastectomies as well as pharmaceutical transgender interventions like cross-sex hormones and puberty-blocking drugs. However, the revised version passed on Thursday only bans genital surgeries, The Hill noted.
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The amendments have significantly altered the scope of the legislation. So-called “bottom surgeries” are less common for minors, who are more likely to be prescribed hormone drugs or undergo other surgeries, like mastectomies.
Despite its significant revisions, the measure has caused upset among opponents for permitting even a minimal degree of governmental guardrails on the practice.
Rep. “Gerri” Cannon, a man who claims to be a woman, said that “[a]dopting this bill is different than anything we’ve done in this House,” The New Hampshire Bulletin reported. He further claimed that it’s the job of “care providers” to determine how to carry out transgender surgeries, not lawmakers.
But not all Democrats sided with Cannon.
Democrat Rep. Jonah Wheeler, who represents Peterborough, said the measure presents the “question of whether or not you believe children should be able to get an irreversible surgery.”
“So yeah, despite being a liberal who believes in human rights, I do not think that children should be able to get irreversible surgery,” Wheeler said, adding that he was willing to “take all the heat that comes from this.”
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It remains to be seen whether Gov. Sununu will opt to sign the measure into law.
In 2022, Sununu expressed public opposition to a measure described as a Parental Bill of Rights that would have barred schools from hiding a child’s alleged gender confusion from his or her parents. The bill stalled and later died in the House.
While it’s unclear what course of action Sununu will take with regard to HB 619, he wouldn’t be the first Republican governor in recent weeks to veto a bill banning the transgender mutilation of children.
Late last month, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed HB 68, the Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, designed to protect children and teenagers from transgender procedures and safeguard girls’ sports from the incursions of males claiming to be “transgender,” LifeSiteNews previously reported. The measure had been passed by both chambers of the state legislature by wide margins. Lawmakers are expected to override the veto.
In a statement shared with LifeSiteNews, Ohio Right to Life announced its support for a legislative veto override. In the meantime, DeWine has subsequently issued an executive order prohibiting transgender surgeries for minors.
READ: Conservatives slam Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine for vetoing bill to protect children from transgenderism
As LifeSiteNews has noted, research does not support the assertions from transgender activists that surgical or pharmaceutical intervention to “affirm” confusion is somehow “necessary medical care” or that it is helpful in preventing the suicides of gender-confused individuals.
In fact, in addition to asserting a false reality that one’s sex can be changed, transgender surgeries and drugs have been linked to permanent physical and psychological damage, including cardiovascular diseases, loss of bone density, cancer, strokes and blood clots, infertility, and suicidality. With regard to providing the mutilating so-called “care” for minors, studies indicate that more than 80% of children suffering from gender dysphoria will outgrow it on their own by late adolescence without surgical or pharmaceutical interventions.