S.C. State Representatives Advance Bill Banning Gender-Affirming Care 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 2024

S.C. State Representatives Advance Bill Banning Gender-Affirming Care 

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — Today the South Carolina House Committee on Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs approved House Bill 4624, a bill that would ban gender-affirming health care for anyone under 18 and force health care providers to stop providing treatment to patients already receiving care such as hormone therapy. The bill also requires school officials to “out” children who are questioning their gender to their parents, potentially before they are ready to share, and bans Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming treatment for anyone under the age of 26.

“If a young person, their medical professional, and their parents all agree that gender-affirming care would benefit their health and well-being, then that patient should be able to access this care without the government interfering, full stop,” said Vicki Ringer, Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. “Instead, our state lawmakers are once again ignoring the pleas of doctors, parents, and people directly affected by this legislation in order to push a political agenda that takes control of private health care decisions and dictates medicine that they don’t understand. Gender-affirming health care is essential, life-saving care, and it is absolutely shameful and dangerous to take it away from young people in this state.”

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic provides gender-affirming health care, including hormone therapy, at their Columbia and Charleston health centers. Standard medical practice already includes adequate protections and safeguards for minors, including individually tailored informed consent and counseling, before medical interventions such as hormone therapy.

Nearly every major medical association opposes bills like H. 4624, including the American Medical Association. In 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) formally recommended giving young people “access to comprehensive gender-affirming and developmentally appropriate health care.” In 2021, AAP also announced its opposition to public policies that “threaten the health and well-being of transgender youth,” including bills that prohibit trans minors from having access to gender-affirming care and/or participating on sports teams in accordance with their gender identity. Experts also warn that legislation like H. 4624 will have profound mental health consequences, including increasing the already high risk of suicide for transgender youth.

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