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Dem State Rep Says Doctors Should Be Held ‘Accountable’ If They Won’t Perform Trans Procedures

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Democratic Pennsylvania state Rep. Emily Kinkead said doctors should be forced to perform cross-sex treatments on patients and that those who refuse should be held “accountable” in Monday testimony to the state House of Representatives.

Kinkead was advocating for HB 300, a bill that would add gender identity, sex and sexual orientation to existing state anti-discrimination law. Opponents have argued the legislation could penalize people who object to transgender medical procedures or to allowing transgender people to use restrooms on the basis of their gender identity.

“When we talk about, ‘Are physicians going to be required to do XYZ?’” Kinkead said. “Yes, if it does no harm, if it in fact helps people. And when we deny gender-affirming care to people who do not identify with the gender that they were assigned at birth, that is causing harm. And absolutely we should be holding the doctors accountable who will deny lifesaving care to people.”

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She also said transgender people were frequently victims of intimate partner violence but did not have shelters available to them, seemingly suggesting women’s shelters should be open to men who identify as transgender women.

Pennsylvania Policy, a conservative advocacy group, said the legislation would strip religious organizations of their right to hire employees who share their beliefs on sexuality, force organizations to allow men into women’s spaces including women’s shelters and force doctors to perform cross-sex procedures against their conscience.

“This bill would force every Pennsylvanian to conform to a political viewpoint that forces women and girls to give up their private spaces to men, as well as removing a safe and equal playing field in school athletics,” Alexis Sneller, a policy analyst at Pennsylvania Family Institute, said in a press release. “No Pennsylvania school district or community should be subjected to the harms that would be caused by [the sponsor’s] intolerant bill.”

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