Just shy of half of all American states have now imposed bans on some or all “gender transition” medical procedures being performed on children, with Wyoming becoming the 24th on Friday. Republican Governor Mark Gordon signed the bill into law after it was passed by overwhelming majorities in the legislature. The ban applies to surgical procedures as well as prescriptions for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or any drug that induces “transient or permanent infertility.” (Daily Wire)
Wyoming became the 24th state to ban gender surgeries on children when Republican Governor Mark Gordon signed legislation targeting the life-altering experimental practice into law on Friday.
Senate File 99, which overwhelmingly passed the state’s House and Senate, prohibits “physicians from performing procedures for children related to gender transitioning and gender reassignment.”
While Gordon signed the bill into law and said he supports protecting children from harmful gender procedures, he added that he was concerned about the government crossing the line into “personal affairs of families,” Wyo4News reported.
Learning a lesson from other states, the law includes exceptions in specific cases that have resulted in laws being struck down where they did not provide for them. These include procedures to correct “a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development,” typically referred to as intersex births. Exceptions are also granted for children suffering from medically verifiable precocious puberty. The latter makes sense since that’s the only application where the FDA has approved the drug.
As noted above, Governor Gordon felt obligated to express his concerns over the bill, saying that it could represent the state government intruding upon the personal affairs of families. That’s usually a significant sticking point for conservatives, but not so much in this case. If you want to take your child to get a haircut or let them get their ears pierced, that shouldn’t be the government’s business. Hair can be grown back and earrings can be removed.
But parental control only goes so far. The government is under no obligation to allow you to have your child’s perfectly healthy arm amputated so they can “identify as being disabled.” In fact, they should lock you up if you try. These “gender transition” procedures are no different. They are scientifically unproven, have never been subjected to thorough clinical trials, and are all irreversible. They lead to permanent disfiguration, the loss of reproductive and sexual functionality, an inability to breastfeed a child, and a lifetime of potential medical and emotional trauma. Once that bridge has been crossed, there is no turning back.
With all of that in mind, I wish that GOP governors signing such bills would give up on mimicking progressive demands involving “my body, my choice.” Your child’s body is not your body. And children are unable to provide informed consent for irreversible medical procedures. Conservatives are right to typically be concerned about the government “intruding on the personal affairs of families.” But there are always limits, and this specific topic is well beyond those limits. The one area where Wyoming’s law probably doesn’t go far enough comes with the penalty section. Provisions for the suspension or removal of the medical licenses of doctors and healthcare providers are included. But honestly, some of those people need to go to jail if only to serve as a lesson to others.