On a 25-4 voting, Tennessee politicians in the state’s Senate approved a bill that would make it illegal for people to assist minors in undergoing gender transition procedures. It then heads to the House under the leadership of the GOP, where it is anticipated to receive more Republican support.
SB 2782, sponsored by Republican state senator Janice Bowling, would criminalize any “adult who recruits, harbors, or transports an unemancipated minor” in Tennessee “for the purpose of receiving a prohibited medical procedure that is intended to allow the minor to identify with, or live as, a claimed identity incompatible with the minor’s sex or treat claimed discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity, regardless of where the procedure takes place.”
Under the Class C felony that the bill assigns, adults who break the law face prison sentences of three to fifteen years and fines of up to $10,000. Additionally, the bill “authorizes a minor to be held liable in a civil action for such violation.”
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The legislation is similar to a separate bill that the Senate approved on Thursday, which may impose fines on people who assist adolescents in obtaining abortions without their parents’ permission.
Both bills were opposed by Tennessee Democrats.
Before Thursday’s vote, Democrat state Sen. Jeff Yarbro stated, “We’ve had two bills in two weeks control the types of interactions people can have with each other.” “We shouldn’t be trying to violate constitutional rights, and that’s what this is trying to do.”
Bowling chose to read portions of the bill’s text when Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Democratic colleague, requested clarification.
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According to Campbell, children who have gender dysphoria “find their parents to be people they can talk to.”
“I absolutely applaud efforts to support parental rights, but I also believe we need to consider the various circumstances where relationships with parents are not always healthy,” she said.
Idaho is currently the only state in the country with a law prohibiting adults from facilitating abortions for minors. Tennessee may be the first state to impose penalties on adults for issues involving gender transition treatments and procedures.
More than a dozen Republican attorneys general recently caught the attention of Maine for a bill being considered that would make it a “totalitarian” state for both abortions and minor-related procedures like sex-change surgeries. Providers would be shielded from so-called “hostile” lawsuits if the bill passes.
Brianna Herlihy of Fox News contributed to this report.
