Louisiana’s legislature utilized its Republican supermajority Tuesday to enact a ban on gender-affirming care for most minors, overriding its Democratic governor who had vetoed the bill.
The law will take effect January 1, 2024.
Gov. John Bel Edwards, who vetoed House Bill 648 last month, responded to the successful override by pointing out that the first time he was overridden on a separate measure, the courts threw out the bill he opposed.
“Today, I was overridden for the second time, on my veto of a bill that needlessly harms a very small population of vulnerable children, their families, and their health care professionals,” he said in a statement. “I expect the courts to throw out this unconstitutional bill, as well.”
The state House and Senate voted 76-23 and 28-11, succeeding in blocking Edwards’ move with the two-thirds majority in each chamber needed to overpower the governor.
The law will bar those under 18 in Louisiana from receiving gender-affirming surgeries, puberty blocking medications and hormone treatments, and punishes health care professionals that provide them with the revocation of their license for a minimum of two years.
Doctors who began providing such drug or hormone therapy to a minor before January 1, 2024, are allowed to continue providing care through December 1, 2024, if they determine that “immediately terminating the minor’s use of the drug or hormone would cause harm to the minor.”
Gender-affirming care spans a range of evidence-based treatments and approaches that benefit transgender and nonbinary people. The types of care vary by the age and goals of the recipient, and are considered the standard of care by many mainstream medical associations.
Though the care is highly individualized, some children and parents may decide to use reversible puberty suppression therapy….
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