Politics

GOP Lawmaker Unveils Bill Banning Child Sex Changes In Indiana

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Republican Indiana Rep. Lorissa Sweet introduced legislation Tuesday that would ban child gender transitions.

The bill would block medical professionals from subjecting minors to procedures or activities that change, affirm or enforce a child’s gender identity when that identity is different from his or her biological sex. Child gender transitions, including social transitions, medications and surgeries, remain legal in most states, though a handful of conservative states have cracked down on the procedures in recent years.

The bill explicitly bans puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors, along with thirteen surgeries including mastectomies, hysterectomies, phalloplasty and penectomies. Mastectomies are offered to minors more readily than other surgeries.

To transgender Americans of all ages, I want you to know that you are so brave. You belong. I have your back. pic.twitter.com/mD4F0m3rU1

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 31, 2022

Medical professionals performed at least 776 mastectomies on minors with gender dysphoria diagnoses in the US from 2017-2019, according to Komodo Health Inc insurance data analyzed by Reuters. The numbers are likely an undercount since they only include those that were covered by insurance, don’t include children without gender dysphoria diagnoses in their medical records and don’t include the likely higher numbers of surgeries performed after 2019.

The Indiana legislation also bans medical procedures and practices aimed at changing a minor’s sexual orientation, commonly referred to as conversion therapy, and explicitly bans some of the more extreme practices that have been used, such as subjecting one’s genitals to electrical current or wrapping one’s hands in heat coils.

If the bill passes, Indiana would follow seven states that restricted child sex changes in 2022 and a handful of others  moving to do the same amid increased public concern about the procedures’ safety and efficacy.

Sweet did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.