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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowGov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill banning all gender-transition care for minors Wednesday, as Indiana joined at least 12 other states that have enacted laws restricting or banning such care.
Holcomb, a Republican, signed the legislation after Republican majorities in the Legislature approved it. The law will go into effect July 1, and trans youth currently taking medication to transition would have until the end of the year to stop doing so.
Holcomb had told reporters Tuesday that the bill on his desk was vague and had not indicated if he would sign it, veto it or let it pass into law without his signature by Wednesday’s deadline.
“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 in a written statement.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit rapidly after Holcomb signed the Indiana legislation—something the group had promised to do after Republican supermajorities advanced the ban this session. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four transgender youth and an Indiana doctor who provides transgender medical treatment. It argues the ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection guarantees as well as federal laws regarding essential medical services.
“The legislature did not ban the various treatments that are outlined,” said Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indiana’s legal director. “It only banned it for transgender persons.”
Opponents of the legislation said the types of care the bill would ban, such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers, are vital and often life-saving for transgender children. Medical providers say most of the procedures banned in the bill are reversible and safe for minors. Transgender medical treatments for children and teens have been available in the U.S. for more than a decade and are endorsed by major medical associations.
The ACLU of Indiana called Holcomb’s decision “a devastating development for transgender youth” and said it intended to fight the law.
“In addition to targeting an already vulnerable group, this law blatantly disregards the rights of parents and families to make decisions about their children’s health,” the group’s executive director, Jane Henegar, said in a statement. “The ACLU is dedicated to overturning this unconstitutional law and is confident the state will find itself completely incapable of defending it in court.”
But supporters of the legislation have contended such care is not reversible or carries side effects that only an adult—and not a minor’s parent—can consent to.
Lawmakers also banned gender-transition surgeries for minors in the state, though hospital representatives in Indiana told lawmakers that doctors do not perform genital surgeries for minors or provide them surgery referrals.
At least 12 other states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-transition care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas. Nearly two dozen states are considering bills this year to restrict or ban care.
Most recently, Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a bill criminalizing gender-transition medical care for transgender youth into law on Tuesday evening.
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Jobs! Roads!
So what professional advice did Gov. Holcomb receive – and who gave it – that led to his proclamation that “permanent gender-changing surgeries with lifelong impacts and medically prescribed preparation for such a transition should occur as an adult, not as a minor”?
Does Holcomb even know anyone who will be affected by the new government edict? And is it even appropriate for government to intervene (i.e., block) in the medical choices that have long been a private matter between patient and physician?
Lastly, why did Holcomb issue a written statement rather than standing in front of the press to explain his decision? Avoiding the press, especially on such difficult topics, is not a good thing.
you obviously don’t have children and, if you do – god help them.
That’s the problem, DD……your god has nothing to do with these trans youth and the healthcare they receive(it shouldn’t at least). Holcomb falling in line with the other conservative states fighting culture wars instead of doing their job. Bet out idiot attorney general is jazzed up ready to sue more Hoosiers for living their lives!!!
I do have children. But that’s beside the point. You failed to directly respond to my points about the governor’s decision.
Sad we can’t kill more babies before they’re born. Now we can’t mutilate them as kids.
What is going on!!
There are far more important things for our legislators and governor to focus on. Healthcare decisions like this should be between the patient/parent and doctor. The children who are going to be denied these services are going to be the ones who suffer. Not receiving gender-affirming care leads to higher instances of suicide.
I remember when what used to be my Republican Party was for small government. Now they are physicians. Sorry, Indiana!
These kids are barely capable of wiping their a$$es properly and yet some think they are capable of making a life changing decision at 12 years old. What planet do these people live on?
Like 10 year olds getting pregnant, and being forced to give birth, you mean?
But Jolf, that’s different!
I mean, if they were actually worried about kids, they’d be worried about the leading cause of death of kids these days … which, not surprisingly, isn’t related to what kids read in the library or if they’re transgendered.
I don’t see what the hubbub is about but then again I wasn’t as triggered from watching Bosom Buddies or Mrs Doubtfire as some of these Republicans must have been.
Kids can’t vote, can’t drive, can’t drink, can’t smoke.
But yes, they have sound mind to decide to chop off their genitals and breasts and be chemically castrated. PROGRESS.
Don’t inject facts with leftists. They can’t process facts; only feelings.
I feel if we open our eyes to human development we will obviously see we have done something wrong as parental leaders for at least 3 generations. We put phones in a child’s hand and we see death by diversion on the highway. We allow them to drive at 16 and many adults are driving drunk and causing death. We see our misdirection causing mass murders in schools. I look at myself and see having been raised in a semi balanced lifestyle and I still made perilous mistakes until I was forty. Maybe we should interview many of the tatoo riddled individuals in their 40s and see how they feel about immature decision. We can’t even seem to controlling guns in hands of individuals. I’m all for freedom however as an adult I also feel we should restrict children from making what could be a life changing mistake.
Thoughtful response, John.
AMEN !!!!!! Oh, oh, how politically incorrect of me to say AMEN. I know for fact that the House has had many transgendered come forward to their Indiana Representatives with severe regrets made as children by their parents to butcher their bodies. If our society allows this “anything goes” craziness, then law and the order achieved through law will soon be extinct. Welcome back to prehistoric times…….not me.
Agreed!
Thank the good Lord for this decision.
Agreed!
I hope this doesn’t cause another shooting by a mentally ill gender pretender like Nashville
I think it’s a good idea for including “gender dysphoria” as a reasonable background check exclusion criterion.
Classifying it as a mental disorder is critical to getting guns out of the hands of these people.
Yes, let’s worry about this very small minority of folks… that will solve the leading cause of death for kids these days (gun violence) … very pro-life…
Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia
not a group of states I’d like to be associated with, myself.
move to California then!!!!!
I don’t think they miss you either.
No need to move – I’ll just wait for you boomers to die out.
Be careful Robert H. about commenting on boomers. We just might take away your participation trophies.
HA HA HA – good stuff DM. please Robert – go away!!
Boomers created the participation trophies, not the kids.
I’ve never received a participation trophy so nothing is lost there.
Given that the people from your generation aren’t procreating and it some cases are making it impossible for them to procreate, what do you expect?
The Roe Effect is pretty reasonable at explaining why the Evangelicals seem to have such influence. They’re still popping out 4-6 kids a woman, and teaching their kids their values (even more so today since public schools are a lost cause).
Meanwhile, the left has their $350/s.f. condos filled with cardigans and cats. Is THAT why they keep rushing more people in from South of the Border? Unfortunate for them that their great hope to create a one-party state through Hispanics is backfiring as they are lurching more GOP by the day.
Let them trans, smoke, drink, and get tattoos whenever they want.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is a publication of the American Psychiatric Association detailing diagnostic criteria for hundreds of psychiatric disorders. The manual is the standard resource of the mental health industry in the United States and is widely used by mental health professionals throughout the world. The DSM lists Gender Disphoria as a disorder. We don’t affirm other disorders like schizophrenia and multiple personalities. Why affirm this one???
Gender-affirming care like hormone therapy and puberty blockers are treatments for gender dysphoria. We try to help individuals with schizophrenia or disassociative disorder receive the care they need, why should we stop providing healthcare for a very specific, select group of individuals?
Grant…your analogy would be better served if we told schizophrenics to submit to what the voices in their heads are telling them and gave them tools to do so, up to and including drugs that convince them they’re flying. That’s far closer to gender-affirming “care”.
Even you admit that it’s dysphoria. Do we tell anorexics and bulimics (also dysphorias) to barf themselves thin? For those with muscle dysphoria (usually men), do we prescribe them steroids so they can bulk themselves up to the hulk and then drop dead at 33?
No? We don’t do this? So why do we openly encourage gender dysphoria sufferers to submit to their delusions? It’s not healthcare. It’s invasive plastic surgery and hormone replacement therapy, the latter of which is a cancer cocktail.
Fundamentally, since I’m libertarian leaning at heart, I am comfortable with adults doing whatever they want to cater to their delusions, as long as they hurt no one else in the process. Keyword of course being “adults”. It’s a horrible idea, but a lot of horrible ideas are still legal. A person shouldn’t go to jail for anorexia, and, if the steroids aren’t part of sports doping (cheating) I don’t really care if adults do that as well.
But minors’ bodies shouldn’t turn into lab experiments. This was almost universally agreed upon knowledge into the left recently suffered mass formation and social contagion, as they are wont to do every generation or two.
I’m as liberal as they come except on this issue. I remember when I wanted to be a dog, then a fire truck, when I was a kid. Parents need to parent, and not be a best friend. Even at 18, human beings aren’t fully baked, but it is the legal age of adulthood. If someone wants to change their gender as an adult, then have at it. But these parents letting their kids make these hefty, life-altering decisions at such young ages is insane to me.
AMEN David……There is too much crap on The Learning Channel that they think changing one’s gender among children is normal thinking. Quite the opposite. One cannot yet change their DNA so gender alteration for children is abnormal in thinking and action. But as I said in another comment here, California is the default State that welcomes abnormal thinking. Well New York Michigan, Minnesota, and likely Illinois too.
Every day, Republicans keep demonstrating how they are incapable of governing and cannot be trusted. Voters are paying attention.