The Florida Senate has approved a bill that will ban transgender treatments for children and those under the age of 18.
SB 254 introduced by Republican state Sen. Clay Yarborough, was passed on Tuesday with a 27-12.
Under the bill, anyone under age 18 from undergoing sex-reassignment surgeries or taking prescription-based cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria.
The bill also permanently prevents people no matter their age from receiving reimbursements from Medicaid after they undergo the procedures.
“This legislation sends a strong message that Florida is a safe place to raise children. As the father of four young boys, I know that childhood is as special as it is short. Florida parents are worried about the radical, prurient agenda that has become pervasive across most forms of media, specifically targeting young children,” Yarborough said in a statement announcing the bill last month.
The Senate bill delegates that Florida’s medical boards would need to establish rules governing minor patients who are currently receiving puberty blockers.
The bill will work in conjunction with rules Governor Ron DeSantis put in place last year for the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine that prohibit transgender treatments for minors.
Both bills also grants temporary emergency jurisdiction in child custody cases where a child in Florida “has been subjected to or is threatened with being subjected to sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures.”
State Sen. Lori Berman, of Boynton Beach, spoke out against the bill stating that also attacks transgender adults:
“I would say free states don’t ban health care,” Berman said, noting major medical groups including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association, supports transgender medical treatments for gender dysphoric youths. “This bill is wrong on the way it attacks transgender adults, wrong on the way it attacks parents’ rights to raise their children, and wrong on how it puts medical professionals at risk.”
The bill is similar to HB 1421, which is currently in its legislative process. The House bill would ban private, commercial insurance policies for reimbursing transgender treatments and states that transgender minors who are currently receiving treatment for gender dysphoria can continue taking puberty blockers through the end of the year but not after that.