GOP passes trans health care ban specifically targeting trans youth with suicide risk

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey (R)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey (R) has signed legislation expanding the state’s gender-affirming care ban for trans youth.

While a 2023 law already banned the safe and lifesaving practice for most trans minors, there was an exception in place for those at risk of suicide or self-harm. The new law removes that exception.

The original ban went into effect in January 2024 and allowed doctors to prescribe puberty blockers and hormone therapy to teens who were considered at risk for self-harm or suicide.

Such teens had to get parental consent as well as a diagnosis of severe gender dysphoria from two doctors, one of whom was a mental health care provider. From there, any medication had to be prescribed at the lowest possible dose necessary to “treat the psychiatric condition and not for purposes of gender alteration.”

The American Principles Project – a conservative organization purporting to be on a mission to “save the family” – celebrated on social media that the new legislation has closed “a loophole” in the original ban and claimed that now the “most vulnerable” kids will be protected.

In reality, every major American medical association and leading world health authority has endorsed gender-affirming care as evidence-based, safe, and in some cases lifesaving for transgender youth. Numerous studies have shown that…

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