(LifeSiteNews) — Gender-confused individuals will be protected from permanently damaging transgender drugs and surgeries until they are 21 years old under a new law signed Puerto Rico’s governor, Jenniffer González-Colón.
Senate Bill 350 prohibits chemical injections meant to make someone look like the opposite sex as well as surgeries that can include the removal of healthy reproductive organs.
“Minors, having not yet reached the necessary emotional, cognitive, and physical maturity, are particularly vulnerable to making decisions that can have irreversible consequences,” the law states, according to the Associated Press. “Therefore, it is the State’s duty to ensure their comprehensive well-being.”
Taxpayer dollars also cannot be used to fund the procedures, according to the AP. The law includes penalties of up to 15 years’ imprisonment, $50,000 in fines, and permanent loss of medical licenses.
While it is impossible for someone to change his or her sex, a fact affirmed by logic as well as biology, the law will likely save people from ever having transgender drugs and surgeries. Studies have shown that 80% of gender-confused individuals will outgrow their dysphoria by adulthood, and the procedures have been linked to infertility, stroke, death, and numerous other medical problems, as extensively documented by LifeSiteNews.
While LGBT activists vowed to challenge the law, it does not seem likely they will succeed.
In June of this year, the Supreme Court affirmed states have the right to protect minors from harmful procedures, including chemical and surgical mutilation, in the case U.S. v. Skrmetti.
President Donald Trump’s administration has also taken a strong stance against the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has subpoenaed 20 doctors and medical facilities that commit the procedures on minors, as announced on July 9.
As LifeSiteNews reported:
Shortly after returning to office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that ended all federal support for “transition” procedures on minors, rescinded or amended all of the Biden health bureaucracy’s past endorsements of underage “transitioning,” and called for a review of the medical literature on the subject, enforcing all existing restrictions on underage “transitioning,” and taking regulatory action to “end” the practice to the greatest extent possible under current law.
“Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi stated on July 9.
Currently 27 states prohibit the chemical and surgical mutilation of children, according to the pro-LGBT Kaiser Family Foundation.
Florida additionally prohibits its Medicaid system from paying for the procedures for children and adults. That law has been on hold but could be upheld following the Supreme Court’s Skrmetti decision and a separate decision called Medina v. Planned Parenthood, which gave states latitude to exclude organizations from their Medicaid system.