The governors of Idaho and Indiana signed bills this week that prohibit minors from accessing gender-reassignment surgery.

On Tuesday, Governor Brad Little (R., Idaho) signed a bill that would criminalize physicians and medical practitioners who provide hormone treatments, puberty blockers, and/or surgeries to minors.

“In signing this bill, I recognize our society plays a role in protecting minors from surgeries or treatments that can irreversibly damage their healthy bodies,” Little wrote in a letter addressed to state lawmakers upon signing the bill. “However, as policymakers we should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children.”

State Democrats have condemned the legislation.

“He [Little] just took away the rights of loving parents to make medical decisions for their children and criminalized treatments proven to reduce suicidality among transgender youth,” Lauren Necochea, the chair of Idaho’s Democratic Party, tweeted adding she was “furious and heartbroken,” about the initiative.

“This bill is going to throw gasoline on that problem,” Democratic state representative Chris Mathia told the Associated Press in mid-February when it passed through the Idaho House.

A similar bill was signed on Wednesday by Indiana governor Eric Holcomb which blocks minors from accessing hormone therapy and surgery and caps those currently undergoing such procedures to stop by the end of 2023.

“Permanent gender-changing surgeries with lifelong impacts and medically prescribed preparation for such a transition should occur as an adult, not as a minor,” Holcomb said of the bill.

The bill’s author, Republican state senator Tyler Johnson, expressed a similar sentiment in late February.

“A child cannot understand the weight and permanency of these decisions,” said Johnson, who is also a doctor. “Given the pressures put on parents, the irreversible nature of these procedures and the unknown long-term effects, there’s no such thing as true informed consent.”

The Indiana and Idaho chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have since filed lawsuits challenging their respective new state laws.

“The legislature did not ban the various treatments that are outlined,” Ken Falk, the legal director of the Indiana ACLU branch told the AP. “It only banned it for transgender persons.”

Michael Suk, a board member of the American Medical Association (AMA), argued along similar lines. “Gender-affirming care is medically-necessary, evidence-based care that improves the physical and mental health of transgender and gender-diverse people,” Suk told CBS News.

Over a dozen mostly Republican states have enacted new laws curtailing minors’ access to gender-reassignment surgeries.

The same day Indiana signed its bill into law, the Arkansas Senate sent a new piece of legislation to the desk of Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders requiring parental approval prior to teachers using a student’s preferred pronouns.

A similar bill was recently passed in Florida by the DeSantis administration.

Indiana’s new law comes into force on July 1, while Idaho’s will not go live until January 2024.