(WPDE) — State house lawmakers approved a bill that bans gender transition procedures for kids and teens in South Carolina on Wednesday night.
The “Help not Harm” bill passed the House with an 82 to 23 vote.
The bill would prohibit any doctor from performing a transition surgery on a child or teen, and doctors could face up to 20 years in prison for inflicting ‘great bodily injury upon a child’.
It would also prohibit school staff from keeping information about a student’s gender identity from their parents.
Additionally, the law prevents South Carolina Medicaid from covering gender-transition procedures for anyone under 26.
Mark Bayar, a Pawleys Island LGBTQ advocate, a leader of P-flag and a nurse, who testified in Columbia before the passage of the bill said lawmakers should get facts from medical professionals before passing legislation.
I’d like to think they could hear the piece about mental health because they’re attacking all aspects of medically necessary care for our trans community.
The bill now heads to the State Senate where there’s a GOP majority.
Governor Henry McMaster weighed on the passage of the bill.
I think this is a good idea to keep young people safe and healthy. If they wanna make those decisions later when they’re adults then that’s a different story, but we must prevent our young people from making irreversible errors.
A 2022 report from UCLA’s Law School took CDC data to estimate how many kids identify as transgender for those 13 to 17 years old.
In South Carolina, it shows 3,700 13 to 17-year-olds identify as trans which is just over one percent of that age group in the state.
It’s similar to the 3,000 13 to 17-year-olds identifying as trans coast to coast, or 1.4% of that age group in the United States.
