The West Virginia legislature passed a ban on sex change surgeries, cross sex hormones, and puberty blockers with exceptions for patients at significant “suicide risk” Saturday.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, a Republican, urged the changes to the original bill, which allows exemptions to the bill’s ban on transgender treatments for minors if the child is at significant risk of suicide. Takubo cited claims that suicide and suicidal ideation significantly reduces for minors who experience gender dysphoria and receive “gender-reassignment” treatments. (RELATED: Norway Decides ‘Gender Affirming Care’ Is ‘Not Evidence Based’)
Takubo’s amendment would allow “Pubertal modulating and hormonal therapy for severe gender dysphoria” in circumstances where “The minor has been diagnosed as suffering from severe gender dysphoria by no fewer than two medical or mental health providers.” Takubo’s amendment was passed 20 to 12.
The bill stipulates that “allopathic and osteopathic physicians may not provide irreversible gender reassignment surgery or gender altering medication as defined herein to a person who is under eighteen years of age.”
There’s an astonishing amount of manipulation and sleight of hand in this @AP write up of legislation preventing questionable medical treatment for gender confused children. Starting from the very first sentence … https://t.co/oZpVqT7yuL
— Geoffrey Ingersoll (@GPIngersoll) March 12, 2023
West Virginia leads the nation in the amount of transgender teens they have per capita, according to a 2017 study by The Williams Institute.
The bill awaits the signature of Republican Governor Jim Justice, who signed a bill in 2021 that barred men who identify as woman from competing in girl’s and women’s athletic competitions.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded a study released in January which claimed to find that cross-sex hormones drastically improved patient’s mental health, despite multiple patient suicides. Other studies have shown that easier access to puberty blockers and transgender hormones is connected to rising teen suicides.
Researcher Jack Turban was forced to issue multiple corrections to a much-touted article from Psychology Today, which purported to prove that “gender-affirming medical care improves mental health for trans youth,” after the study’s own researchers came forward to say their studies did not unequivocally prove that access to transgender “treatments” led to better mental health.