Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes Denounces Missouri Attorney General’s Unprecedented and Dangerous Restriction on Gender-Affirming Care as a “Gross Misuse of Power”
For Immediate Release: April 13, 2023
Today, in response to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s unprecedented use of an emergency rule to prohibit gender-affirming care for people of all ages, Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes (PPGPV) is denouncing the regulation as dangerous, a violation of fundamental bodily autonomy, and putting politics over trans Missourians’ lives and futures.
The emergency rule, which follows a wave of attacks on reproductive, LGBTQ+ and transgender rights by the state legislature, imposes numerous politically motivated barriers to accessing gender-affirming care that are either misinterpreted or not based on any existing standards of medical care. In the rule, the attorney general imposes unnecessary hurdles before a person can receive any gender-affirming care including the patient must be screened, at least annually, for autism and to ensure the patient is not experiencing “social contagion with respect to the patient’s gender identity.” If the patient is a minor, they must also be screened for social media addiction, among other arbitrary and unfounded restrictions.
Statement from Emily Wales, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes:
“Trans people across Missouri must have access to life-saving care; instead, they are being met with ignorance and shame from an appointed attorney general with no grasp of medicine. The right to bodily autonomy extends to working with and trusting a provider who has experience and expertise with gender-affirming care. In a gross misuse of power, the attorney general is essentially banning trans care for all Missourians because he is more focused on creating a political name for himself than understanding best practice medical care. It should be alarming to all Missourians, who value the freedom to make their own health care decisions, that rights could be taken away by a single politician.”
Last month, PPGPV was proud to join PROMO Missouri, ACLU of Missouri, and other LGBTQ+ and reproductive health advocacy organizations at the Capitol to protest for trans rights. Hundreds of people from across the state came together to make their voices heard and let lawmakers know that every person deserves the right to bodily autonomy and to live authentically, free of shame and stigma.