Emotions run high as Georgia House panel advances bill limiting transgender care for minors
GEORGIA RECORDER: GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
BY: ROSS WILLIAMS - MARCH 15, 2023
A Georgia House committee gave its approval Tuesday to a Senate bill aimed at restricting the type of care doctors could provide to transgender minors.
If signed into law, Cordele Republican Sen. Carden Summers’ Senate Bill 140 would prevent doctors from providing surgical or hormone treatments for gender dysphoria to people under 18. Minors already on hormones for gender dysphoria could continue receiving treatment. The bill would allow puberty-blocking medicine for transgender youth, which Summers said is intended to provide a pause before choosing whether to undergo irreversible treatment.
A last-minute amendment by Columbia Republican Rep. Jodi Lott removes language protecting doctors from civil or criminal charges for violating the proposed law.
Rep. Michelle Au, a physician and Johns Creek Democrat, read from an American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement which says that transgender children understand their gender as consistently as their cisgender peers and benefit from the same level of social acceptance “in contrast to the outdated approach in which a child’s gender-diverse assertions are held as ‘possibly true’ until an arbitrary age.”
“Essentially, they’re saying that the approach taken in your bill, SB 140, is not in line with the current science and policy of the American Academy of Pediatrics,” Au said. “So my question is, senator, why do you think the judgment of the Georgia State Legislature and of you, 99%-plus of which have no clinical training in pediatrics whatsoever, should supersede what the American Academy of Pediatrics has determined to be best practices in caring for gender diverse children?”
Smyrna Democratic Rep. Teri Anulewicz listed bills prioritized by Republicans last year emphasizing parental control in areas like mask mandates, vaccinations and divisive classroom concepts.
“Can you tell me why this is different from those other issues in which the General Assembly has established and codified that we defer to parental authority?” Anulewicz asked.
Atlanta Democratic Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver suggested passing such a law would be unprecedented.
“My question is, has the medical board been directed by the General Assembly in any other medical condition of any kind to write rules and regulations?” she asked.