Yesterday, the Governor of South Dakota signed HB 1080, banning all disfiguring transsexual hormonal and surgical “treatments” for minors. It would also require medical facilities to “systematically reduce” any hormone treatment already being administered to a minor.
The bill passed the South Dakota House 60 to 10 on February 3rd. It passed the Senate 30 to 4 on February 9th. It was signed into law by the Governor yesterday.
The bill bans explicitly the following “treatments” on minors:
(1) Prescribe or administer to a minor, any drug to delay or stop normal puberty;
(2) Prescribe or administer supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or other androgens to a female;
(3) Prescribe or administer supraphysiologic doses of estrogen to a male;
(4) Perform any sterilizing surgery, including castration, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, orchiectomy, penectomy, and vasectomy;
(5) Perform any surgery that artificially constructs tissue having the appearance of genitalia differing from the minor’s sex, including metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, and vaginoplasty; or
(6) Remove any healthy or non-diseased body part or tissue.
Arkansas enacted a similar bill in 2021 after overriding a veto by Governor Huckabee. Alabama and Arizona enacted similar bills in 2022. Utah passed a similar law last January.
The Mississippi House passed a similar law last January. It needs to pass the Senate before it can be signed into law.
Yesterday, the Tennessee Senate passed a similar bill 26-6. The Tennessee House is set to discuss the bill tomorrow, and it is highly likely to be passed shortly.
Note that Texas has not passed a law like this, though some websites have falsely reported that they did. The Governor issued a unilateral directive, which was immediately challenged in the courts. It will probably never be enforceable.
Major lawsuits are being filed against these laws, and the DOJ has already joined at least one case. It is likely that fight to ban child transsexual disfigurement will go all the way to the US Supreme Court.
