These States Have Restricted Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth

A large majority of transgender adults in the United States – 78% – say living with a gender different from the one assigned to them at birth has made them more satisfied with their lives, according to a survey from The Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation.

Among respondents, more than three-quarters had changed their type of clothing, hairstyle or grooming habits to align with their preferred gender, while 31% had used hormone treatments and 16% had undergone gender-affirming surgery or a related surgical treatment to alter their appearance.

But such options are becoming available on a more limited basis, as politicians in multiple states have attempted to restrict trans Americans’ ability to seek gender-affirming medical treatments.

The Human Rights Campaign, a LGBTQ+ advocacy group, defines gender-affirming care as “age-appropriate care that is medically necessary for the well-being of many transgender and non-binary people who experience symptoms of gender dysphoria, or distress that results from having one’s gender identity not match their sex assigned at birth.” The organization notes both the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics support “age-appropriate, gender-affirming care for transgender and non-binary people.”

Conservatives often oppose the concept of gender-affirming care – which may or may not include surgery or other interventions – for various reasons, including religious beliefs and concerns about child abuse. “You don’t disfigure 10-, 12-, 13-year-old kids based on gender dysphoria,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said at an August news conference.

Some have expressed concern about a lack of data on the possible long-term consequences of gender-affirming medical treatment for minors. A 2022 Reuters investigation, for example, found “no large-scale studies have tracked people who received gender-related medical care as children to determine how many remained satisfied with their treatment as they aged and how many eventually regretted transitioning.” Others, according to the article, have raised alarms about children who are not appropriately evaluated before receiving gender-affirming medical care.

Below are the states that have moved to restrict some form of gender-affirming care for minors in 2023 and so far in 2024, based largely on legislation tracking from the Equality Federation, an advocacy accelerator that works with a network of state-based LGBTQ+ organizations.

Dozens of bills are still being considered by lawmakers in other states, according to the federation. And officials elsewhere, including in Florida and Missouri, have bypassed state legislatures altogether.

Signed into law by new Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in March, Arkansas’ law will make health care providers liable for civil action for up to 15 years after a minor turns 18 if they performed a gender transition procedure on that minor – essentially making it easier to file malpractice lawsuits in these situations. On that note, experts say the law acts as a de facto ban on gender-affirming care for children because it makes it nearly impossible for providers to get malpractice insurance, according to the AP. In 2021, state lawmakers passed the nation’s first ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The move was temporarily blocked shortly after, but on June 20, 2023, a federal judge issued a permanent injunction against it, ruling the ban unconstitutional. It marked the first time such a state ban was overturned, but the more recent law signed by Sanders was still set to go into effect.

The state Department of Health’s Board of Medicine announced a new rule in March that prohibits several types of treatment and procedures – such as sex reassignment surgeries and puberty blockers – for treating gender dysphoria in minors. Then, on May 17, DeSantis signed into law a similar gender-affirming care ban from the state legislature, which, in addition to prohibiting procedures from being performed on minors, also grants Florida courts “temporary emergency jurisdiction” over a child if they have been subjected to or “threatened” with sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures. The law also requires transgender adults to get written consent before undergoing such procedures by using a form adopted by the Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine, according to Reuters. But on June 6, a district court judge in Florida issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocked enforcement of some parts of the law on behalf of several young plaintiffs. Months later, the same judge ruled that the parts of the law that apply to transgender adults can still be enforced while it is challenged in court.

Senate Bill 140 was signed into law by Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in late March. The legislation, pushed forward by the Republican majority in the state’s General Assembly, prohibits “certain surgical procedures for the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors from being performed in hospitals and other licensed healthcare facilities.” There are exceptions, including treatments that are deemed “medically necessary” and situations covering continued treatment for minors undergoing “irreversible hormone replacement therapies” prior to July 1, 2023. A federal judge on Sept. 5 allowed Georgia to resume enforcing the portion of the law banning doctors from starting hormone therapy for transgender minors, weeks after blocking it with a preliminary injunction. The prohibition on surgical procedures was not covered by the legal challenges.

The state’s GOP Gov. Brad Little approved a bill that criminalizes providing gender-affirming care for youth. Signed on April 4 and set to go into effect in January 2024, the law makes it a felony to provide hormones, puberty blockers or other gender-affirming medical care to minors. Little said in a letter confirming the bill signing that policymakers “should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children.” But in December 2023, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction blocking the law’s enforcement.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed into law on April 5 a bill banning all gender-affirming care for minors, after previously saying there was “some vagueness to it,” according to the AP. The governor said in a statement that “permanent gender-changing surgeries with lifelong impacts and medically prescribed preparation for such a transition should occur as an adult, not as a minor.” The parts of the law banning puberty blockers and hormone treatments for minors were blocked by a federal judge on June 16, 2023, following a request for a preliminary injunction by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. But a federal appeals court ruling on Feb. 27, 2024, allowed those restrictions to go into effect.

Iowa’s ban, signed into law on March 22, prohibits health care professionals from “knowingly” performing certain medical practices on minors if they are “for the purpose of attempting to alter the appearance of, or affirm the minor’s perception of, the minor’s gender or sex, if that appearance or perception is inconsistent with the minor’s sex.” Practices covered by the law include hormone therapies and surgical procedures. As with other states’ laws, there are some exceptions, including a “medically verifiable disorder of sex development.”

The state on March 29 joined others in banning gender-affirming medical care for minors when the Republican-led Kentucky General Assembly voted to override Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto, becoming the first state led by a Democrat to approve such a ban in 2023. The law notes that any health provider who violates the prohibition can have their license or certificate revoked. A federal judge on June 28 temporarily blocked the portion of the law that would have banned transgender youth from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy, but that same judge lifted the injunction on July 14 – allowing the restrictions to go into effect. A federal appeals court panel on July 31 allowed the state to continue enforcing the law – and so did another in September.

With a successful override attempt of former Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ veto by the state’s Republican supermajority legislature, Louisiana approved a ban on gender-affirming care for minors on July 18. The law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, covers procedures such as hormone therapies, puberty blockers and gender-reassignment surgeries. The ban’s ultimate approval came after a Republican lawmaker cast a tie-breaking vote to kill the legislation in May. But it was eventually resurrected and passed before Edwards’ veto. New Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, has supported the ban, saying in a post in X in May 2023, “Pediatric sex changes should have no place in our society.”

Mississippi’s law – among the first to be enacted in 2023 – bans any person from knowingly providing or engaging in conduct that aids and abets the performance of gender transition procedures on a minor in the state. The ban also prohibits the use of public funds or tax deductions for such procedures. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves said when he signed the bill into law that “radical activists” are telling children they are “just a surgery away from happiness,” according to the AP.

GOP Gov. Mike Parson on June 7 signed a bill that will restrict gender-affirming health care for minors and some adults in Missouri starting in late August. The law prevents the state’s Medicaid division from covering such treatment for people of any age, and prohibits providers from prescribing puberty-blockers or cross-sex hormones to minors until Aug. 28, 2027, unless they were being treated prior to the bill’s effective date. Missouri initially banned gender-affirming care in April through an emergency regulation from state Attorney General Andrew Bailey that limited treatments for both minors and adults, the latter of which was believed to be a first in the country. But Bailey terminated the rule – which had already been on pause due to a lawsuit – on May 16, citing the state legislature’s imminent ban. A circuit judge on Aug. 25 allowed the law to take effect.

Signed into law on April 28 by Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, Montana’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors covers both surgical procedures and medications such as puberty blockers and testosterone. As with other state laws, the prohibition has exceptions including for someone “diagnosed with a disorder of sexual development.” Any physician who performs a banned procedure can be also sued in the 25 years following it if the after-effects result in any injury, “including physical, psychological, emotional or physiological harms.” Democratic state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a transgender woman, was exiled from the Montana House floor after she said her fellow Republican lawmakers would have “blood on their hands” if they passed the bill. The law was set to take effect on Oct. 1, but a state judge issued a preliminary injunction on Sept. 27 that blocked its enforcement, according to the AP.

Republican Gov. Jim Pillen signed into law on May 22, 2023, a bill that limits gender-affirming medical care for minors, which covers people under the age of 19 in Nebraska. The law, which also bans abortions at 12 weeks of pregnancy, includes a ban on surgical procedures and limitations on “prescribed drugs related to gender alteration.” The regulations for hormone therapies – recommended by the state’s chief medical officer, a political appointee – were later approved by Pillen on March 12, 2024, and include a seven-day waiting period to start puberty-blocking medications or hormone treatments and a requirement for transgender patients under 19 to meet several therapy benchmarks. The gender-affirming care portion of the new law went into effect on Oct. 1, 2023.

The state’s Republican-dominated legislature on Aug. 16 voted to successfully override a veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and approve a ban on gender-affirming care for minors in North Carolina. The bill’s language covers both transition surgeries and puberty-blocking drugs or cross-sex hormones. The law goes into effect immediately, but as with other state bans that have been approved, there are some exceptions to the prohibition.

Republican Gov. Doug Burgum on April 19 signed a veto-proof bill into law that criminalizes providing gender-affirming medical care to minors. The law, which went into effect immediately as an “emergency measure,” makes performing sex reassignment surgery on a minor a felony, and makes providing gender-affirming medication such as puberty blockers to minors a misdemeanor. Burgum recommended in a statement that “thoughtful debate around these complex medical policies should demonstrate compassion and understanding for all North Dakota youth and their families,” according to the AP.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine on Jan. 5, 2024, signed an executive order that prohibits young Ohioans from getting gender-affirming surgeries done before they turn 18. The order, which takes effect immediately, came just a week after DeWine vetoed a bill from the state legislature that would have instituted a broader restriction on gender-affirming care for minors, including hormone therapies. But on Jan. 24, the state Senate successfully voted to override the governor’s veto, meaning the more wide-reaching ban – which also prohibits transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports teams at both the K-12 and collegiate level – was expected to take effect in 90 days.

GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt on May 1 signed into law a ban on gender-affirming care for minors in Oklahoma, saying he was “thrilled” to do so and “protect our kids.” The bill allows for any physician who knowingly provides gender transition procedures to be charged with a felony, but the prosecution must occur before the minor patient turns 45. The law went into effect immediately, but on May 18 the state agreed to not enforce it while opponents sought a temporary court order blocking it. A federal judge in October later declined to stop the law from taking effect.

Signed into law on Feb. 13, House Bill 1080 prohibits South Dakotan health care professionals from administering various types of gender-affirming procedures on minors. If a provider violates the law, the legislation requires a professional or occupational licensing board to revoke any license or certificate held by the provider. GOP Gov. Kristi Noem strongly supported the bill before signing it, according to the AP.

Tennessee’s legislation, which was signed by Gov. Bill Lee in March but was set to go into effect on July 1, bans health care providers from performing or offering to perform a medical procedure on a minor if its purpose is to enable that minor “to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the immutable characteristics of the reproductive system that define the minor as male or female.” It also prohibits such procedures if the purpose is to treat “purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.” There are exceptions, and the law establishes penalties for providers who violate it. Just days before its July 1 effective date, a federal judge on June 28 temporarily blocked the portion of the law that would have banned transgender youth from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy. U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson, however, did not block the law’s ban on surgical procedures. A federal appeals court on July 8 temporarily reversed Richardson’s ruling, meaning the law can take effect at least until the court conducts a full review.

GOP Gov. Greg Abbott on June 2 signed a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors in Texas. The law contains exceptions similar to other states’ efforts at restricting transition care. The Texas Supreme Court on Aug. 31 allowed the law to go into effect on Sept. 1, overruling a state district judge who had issued a temporary injunction against the ban a week prior. The law’s passage was not Texas’ first attempt at limiting gender-affirming care: Abbott in 2022 ordered the investigation of families who were receiving such care, but the order was halted by a judge in the state.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed into law on Jan. 28 the first gender-affirming care ban of the year. The Utah legislature’s Senate Bill 16 restricts health providers from performing “sex characteristic surgical procedures on a minor for the purpose of effectuating a sex change” or hormonal transgender treatment on minors who weren’t diagnosed with gender dysphoria before July 1, 2023. Cox said his approval of the law was an effort at least in part to pause “these permanent and life-altering treatments for new patients until more and better research can help determine the long-term consequences,” the AP reported.

A new law signed by GOP Gov. Jim Justice on March 29 prohibits minors from being prescribed hormone therapy and puberty blockers, or from receiving gender-affirming surgery. The law, which will take effect in January 2024, contains an exception geared toward youth for whom “treatment with pubertal modulating and hormonal therapy is medically necessary to treat the minor’s psychiatric symptoms and limit self-harm, or the possibility of self-harm.” In these cases, the minor must receive consent from their parents or guardians along with two medical providers.

Republican Gov. Mark Gordon on March 22 signed into law a measure that prohibits gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. The ban, which is set to go into effect on July 1, 2024, covers treatment such as surgeries and puberty-blockers. While he did sign the bill, Gordon added that the legislation means the government is “straying into the personal affairs of families,” according to the AP.