A lawsuit filed seeks to block the start of a transgender healthcare ban for Missouri children.
Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ civil rights law firm, along with the ACLU of Missouri, have filed the lawsuit in Cole County Circuit Court. The suit was filed on behalf of the families of three transgender people, Southampton Community Healthcare and two of its medical providers, as well as two LGBTQ organizations – PFLAG National and GLMA.
Senate Bill 49 would ban doctors from prescribing or giving cross-sex hormones or puberty-blocking drugs to any person under 18 years old. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, would also prohibit physicians from doing gender transition surgery on minors.
It would ban Medicaid from covering gender transitions for adults. In addition, the state would not be allowed to cover gender transition surgeries for individuals in prisons, jails, and correctional centers.
Doctors who violate the bill could have their medical license revoked. Violations could also be grounds for a cause of action in a lawsuit against the health provider.
“On its face, the law enshrines discriminatory practices in our health care system by specifically denying transgender Missourians under the age of eighteen access to evidence-based gender-affirming medical care while stripping parents of their fundamental right to make medical decisions for their children,” said Gillian Wilcox, Deputy Director of Litigation at the ACLU of Missouri. “Extreme politicians in Missouri, like the Attorney General, have made known their desire to ban gender-affirming care throughout the state. This legislation targets very specific, vulnerable populations – young people, those who access health care through Medicaid, and incarcerated individuals – to replace private medical decisions with the will of politicians in Jefferson City.”
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey fired back on Twitter.
“There are zero FDA approvals of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria in children. We’re not going to let left-wing ideologues experiment on children here in the state of Missouri,” said Bailey.
The bill is scheduled to become law on August 28.
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