Gender-affirming care ban clears Senate

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana lawmakers on Tuesday moved one step closer to banning key components of transgender care.

State senators voted along party lines to advance a bill that would ban any form of medical gender transition care for minors. The bill specifically names surgery, which doctors at IU Riley Children’s Hospital have said they already do not perform on minors. It also bans hormone therapy and puberty blockers. The measure also includes language that allows any such procedure for uses other than gender transition care, such as for people who are intersex or other, unrelated treatment. Counseling and mental health care could continue.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Tyler Johnson, R-Leo, who is a licensed physician, said he wants to prevent permanent damage resulting from such procedures.

“A child cannot understand the weight and permanency of these decisions,” he said. “It would cause far less harm for these kids to wait, get the counseling they need, and then make these life-altering decisions as adults.”

According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, just 8 percent of transgender people de-transition for any length of time. Out of that group, just 5 percent, or 0.4 percent of the total transgender population, do so because they feel it is no longer right for them. Nearly all of the rest do so either due to outside pressure or, in some cases, because they identify as non-binary. Sen. Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington, pointed to that statistic and the high suicide rate among transgender youth. She noted the carveouts in the bill for care other than gender-affirming treatment.

“Is that what this bill is? Some medical diagnoses in children deserve care and some don’t?” she said.

The bill now heads to the House. At this point in the session, the only legislation still in play is that which has passed its chamber of origin. Bills still have to get through the opposite chamber by the middle of April.