Bill to ban child sex reassignment procedures passes Senate committee

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – A senate committee advanced a bill that would ban minors from receiving sex-reassignment prescriptions and procedures on Monday.

Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, introduced the committee substitute bill which passed through the Senate Committee on Health Policy.

Yarborough said the purpose for this bill is to protect children in Florida.

“We have other components in this bill that relate to adults and relates and relate to the expenditure of state funds, but we want to let kids be kids in Florida. The overall goal of the bill is to protect the children of our state,” Yarborough said.

The bill prohibits sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures for patients younger than 18 years of
age, except that prescription treatments may continue for such patients whose treatment was
commenced before, and is still active on the bill’s effective date.

The committee substitute amends Florida’s child custody statutes, to give courts in the state jurisdiction to enter, modify, or stay a child custody determination relating to a child who is present in this state to the extent necessary to protect the child from being subjected to sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures.

“This bill gives the court discretion on whether and how to act to protect a child when a parent is subjecting a child to sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures that this bill makes illegal in Florida. Again, both parents have a right to be involved in the upbringing of a child, and one parent should not be able to unilaterally attempt to change the sex of their child,” Yarborough clarified in a statement released on Monday.

Additionally, the legislation will create requirements for voluntary, informed consent that must be met in order for a patient 18 years of age or older to be treated with sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures.

It will stipulate that only allopathic or osteopathic physicians may provide sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures.

The bill will also creates criminal penalties for the provision of sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures in violation of the bill’s prohibition or requirements.

Any health care practitioner who willfully or actively participates in a violation of the bill’s provisions relating to providing treatment to a child may be charged with a felony of the third degree.

A practitioner who is arrested for the crime of providing sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures to a patient younger than 18 years of age may have his or her license suspended.

It will requires that any hospital, ambulatory surgical center, or physician’s office registered for the provision of office surgery, must provide a signed attestation that the facility does not offer or provide sex reassignment prescriptions or procedures for children, except those qualifying for the exception under the bill, and also does not refer such patients to other providers for those treatments.

The bill requires that the continuation of prescription treatment for such children must be administered by a medical doctor or osteopathic physician and must be consistent with emergency rules adopted by the Board of Medicine and the board of osteopathic medicine.

Yarborough said the boards have spent the past eight months extensively reviewing research hearing from medical experts and listening to the public on this very issue and are the appropriate bodies to determine standards of care for these children who are already receiving these prescriptions.

During the committee meeting, Democrats proposed several amendments which did not pass.

“I am 17 years old and I’m openly proudly a part of the LGBTQ+ community. I am fortunate enough to live in a home with parents that love and accept me but I am now at risk of being forcibly taken away from them because they accept me. Signing this bill into law is nothing less than a death sentence for trans people like me and the ones I love,” one speaker said.

Sen. Tracie Davis, D-Jacksonville, opposed the bill in debate.

“Trans kids are rare, but they do exist. This bill will be a massive step backwards because simply all this bill does is put more kids in harm’s way. I personally feel like this bill is unconstitutional,” Davis said.

Sen. Rosalin Osgood, D-Tamarac, said she has been going back and forth with this bill. She said she is tired of partisan fighting and doesn’t believe any of her colleagues are trying to cause harm.

“Just because you have a different perspective, it doesn’t mean you’re trying to hurt someone or retaliate against someone. But, for my own personal belief I do just think that is too far overreaching, and that’s why I’m not supporting the bill,” Osgood said.

The bill now moves to the Fiscal Policy committee.