North Carolina lawmakers revive ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors

In the final days of the legislative session, Republican House and Senate leaders have resurrected proposals to ban some gender-affirming care for transgender minors, even those who have their parents' consent. Two proposals are scheduled for committee hearings this week.

On Tuesday, the House Health committee will hear a proposed committee substitute for Senate Bill 631. It would ban any UNC or UNC-affiliated healthcare facility, or any other public hospital, or any provider under contract to such a facility, from providing any gender-affirming medical care to a minor, including puberty blockers and hormone treatment. It would also block the use of state funds to pay for any such care.

And on Wednesday, the Senate Health committee will hear House Bill 808, a bill that bans surgical gender-transition procedures for people under 18. When H808 was unveiled earlier this session, it would also have banned any doctor from providing puberty-blocking drugs, gender-affirming hormone therapy or even gender-affirming counseling for minors.

After emotional committee testimony by doctors, parents and transgender people, H808 was revised to focus only on surgical care, although an amendment added on the House floor seems to ban the use of state dollars for any type of gender-affirming care. It passed the House May 3, during the flurry of bills trying to meet the crossover deadline.

Social conservative group North Carolina Family Policy Council sent an email alert to its members Monday, saying it's working to persuade lawmakers to restore H808 to its earlier, wider ban on all types of gender-affirming treatment.

Neither Equality NC or Campaign for Southern Equality, two state LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, immediately responded to WRAL News's request for comment.

According to Equality Federation, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group that tracks legislation, at least 20 other states have enacted bans on some or all gender-affirming medical and psychological care for transgender minors, 19 of them in 2023 alone.

The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and Endocrine Society have all taken positions against limiting gender-affirming care for minors. They say there's no set protocol for these cases. While the standard of care generally calls for a conservative approach, delaying sexual reassignment surgery until a patient is an adult, the medical groups say blanket bans are inappropriate. They say the course of treatment for any given patient is best left up to that patient, their family and their healthcare providers.

Studies have shown that gender-affirming care for transgender minors lowers their risk of suicide and depression, However, those who oppose such care call it "experimental" and say it can have negative lifelong effects on young patients. They also cite recent policy changes in some European countries toward limiting the use of puberty blockers and surgical interventions.