Georgia Republican state senators approved a bill on Tuesday that restricts minors from getting gender transition treatments and threatens doctors who perform such actions with civil and criminal penalties.
In a vote of 31-21, SB 140 was passed and is now heading to Gov. Brian Kemp, who is expected to sign the bill into law.
The bill would ban most gender-transition surgeries and hormone therapies for transgender individuals under the age of 18 in Georgia, although doctors could still give prescriptions for puberty blockers.
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One of the bill’s primary sponsors, Republican state Sen. Ben Watson, spoke on the bill before the senate voted on its approval.
“What we’re doing here is we’re preventing minors under 18 years old from having irreversible changes in their lives,” he said.
State Sen. Carden Summers, also a Republican, said he was compassionate about protecting the lives of children by not offering life altering drugs and surgeries that are completely irreversible, adding that he looked forward to looking people in the eye to share his compassion.
Democratic state Sen. Kim Jackson, though, requested her colleagues vote no on the bill because of a change made at by House representatives.
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Jackson said the bill that was sent to the house provided immunity to doctors and medical personnel who provided access to hormone treatment necessary to treat gender dysphoria.
But the House removed that line, she said, and the bill now holds doctors and medical professionals criminally and civilly liable, “simply for doing their jobs,” and following medical advice that has been peer-reviewed by standards shared across the U.S.
Another Democratic state senator, Elena Parent, told the Senate she has been against the bill since its first reading, agreeing with Jackson that the…
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