Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas vetoed a bill on Friday that banned doctors from performing sex-change surgeries on minors.
The bill was approved by the state Senate on March 27, with 27 voting in favor and 13 against, and would have prohibited state funding from being used to “promote or advocate” for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or sex-change surgeries for minors. The bill also barred doctors from performing sex-change procedures on minors, but Kelly argued the legislation gets in the way of “parental rights,” according to a press release. (RELATED: Major Review Finds There Is ‘Weak Evidence’ Supporting Puberty Blockers For Kids)
“This divisive legislation targets a small group of Kansans by placing government mandates on them and dictating to parents how to best raise and care for their children,” Kelly said in the press release. “I do not believe that is a conservative value, and it’s certainly not a Kansas value. To be clear, this legislation tramples parental rights.”
Transgender boy Damian of New York takes part in the NYC Pride March as part of World Pride commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising on June 30, 2019 in New York City. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
The bill would have also prohibited any individual or institutions that receives state funding from encouraging a child to “social” transition, meaning “acts other than medical or surgical interventions that are undertaken for the purpose of presenting as a member of the opposite sex, including the changing of an individual’s preferred pronouns or manner of dress.”
“The last place that I would want to be as a politician is between a parent and a child who needed medical care of any kind,” Kelly said, according to the press release. “And, yet, that is exactly what this legislation does.”
Republican state House Speaker Dan Hawkins, who supported the bill, told CBS News that Kelly is going to “find herself on the wrong side of history.”
Nearly half of the states in the U.S. have banned transgender surgeries for minors, while 14 have implemented “shield laws” that protect access to the procedures.
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