Transgender minors in Mississippi can no longer receive gender-affirming care in the state after its Republican governor signed a bill Tuesday that prohibits health care professionals from providing both hormone treatments and surgical procedures.
Gov. Tate Reeves’ approval of HB 1125 comes as Republican-led states around the country are pushing an unprecedented number of bills seeking to restrict gender-affirming care this year. Debates around the issue have reached into new territory in recent months after some lawmakers proposed measures that would extend some of the bans to people older than 18.
Gender-affirming care is medically necessary, evidence-based care that uses a multidisciplinary approach to help a person transition from their assigned gender – the one the person was designated at birth – to their affirmed gender – the gender by which one wants to be known.
Mississippi’s ban – which went into effect immediately after Reeves signed it – outlaws the prescription and administration of puberty-blocking medication and cross-sex hormone therapy in patients under the age of 18, and prohibits surgery related to gender transition. The law also makes it illegal for people to “knowingly engage in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of gender transition procedures” to minors.
Any health care professional found to be in violation of the ban will have their license to practice medicine in the state revoked, according to the law, which also gives people who “assert an actual or threatened” violation of the ban the right to bring civil suits against “against any facility, individual or entity” for violating its provisions. The statute of limitations for bringing such suits is 30 years.
“At the end of the day, there are two positions here. One tells children that they’re beautiful the way they are. That…
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