Mississippi has become the latest state to ban health care professionals from providing “gender-affirming care” for transgender youth in what officials say will stop the attempt to “push a sick and twisted ideology” on children.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, signed the GOP-led House Bill 1125, also known as the “Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures (REAP) Act” into law on Feb. 28.
Under the legislation, which is effective immediately, individuals in the state are banned from “knowingly engaging in conduct that aids or abets” the performance or inducement of gender transition procedures for Mississippians under the age of 18.
The bill also prevents public funds or tax deductions for prohibited gender transition procedures, noting that the direct or indirect use, grant, payment, or distribution of public funds to any entity, organization, or individual that provides gender transition procedures to individuals under the age of 18 is also prohibited.
It also puts in place enforcement procedures on the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure. Any health care professional found to be in violation of the ban will have their license to practice medicine in the state revoked.
The measure, which also prevents Medicaid from reimbursing or providing coverage for gender transition for persons under the age of 18, allows for health care providers to be sued by their former patients, via their “parent or next friend” within 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 they can find happiness in their own bodies. The other tells them that they should take drugs and cut themselves up with expensive surgeries in order to find freedom from depression. I know which side I’m on. No child in Mississippi will have these drugs or surgeries pushed upon them,” said Reeves in a statement.
In a separate statement on Twitter shortly before signing the law, Reeves said there are individuals in the state who are “attempting to push a sick and twisted ideology that seeks to convince our kids they’re in the wrong body and the solution is to drug, sterilize, and castrate themselves.”
“To these radical activists I only have one thing to say: Not in Mississippi,” the governor wrote.
The signing of the bill makes Mississippi the latest state to enact a ban on gender-affirming care after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, also a Republican, signed a similar “Help Not Harm” bill into law last month.
Similar bans have also been passed in Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah, although some of them are currently being blocked by lawsuits.
Nebraska and Oklahoma are also considering similar bills and last month, Republican Florida state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia introduced a bill that would require businesses that cover the cost of gender-transition medical care for their employees to pay for any subsequent detransition care.
Supporters of such bills claim that they are intended to safeguard children. Experts have said that four out of five children grow out of gender dysphoria once they reach adolescence.
However, opponents, including a string of major medical organizations like the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association, have all voiced support for gender transition care among minors, arguing that it is safe and effective.
After Mississippi’s Senate lawmakers passed House Bill 1125 on Feb. 23, state Sen. Joey Fillingane, a Republican who handled the bill’s floor passage, noted that the legislation was not intended to discriminate against the transgender community.
“We love people,” Fillingane said. “We don’t hate people. We want people to be well and healthy … But these are unnatural things taking place in our state.”
However, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which works to “protect and defend individuals’ rights,” said in a statement on Tuesday that the new legislation “shuts the door on medical best practice and puts politics between parents, their children, and their doctors.”
“This life-saving care was already difficult to access for trans youth across the state, and is now entirely out of reach,” ACLU said. “Our politicians continue to fail trans youth — but we will never stop fighting back against this ongoing attack against trans rights across the nation. Trans youth shouldn’t have to fight this hard to be who they are.”