The South Dakota Senate approved a bill on Thursday that would ban the provision of hormone treatment, puberty blockers, and genital surgery for trans youth.
House Bill 1080 aims to restrict medical professionals from providing certain medical interventions to minors if the aim is to alter the appearance or validate the perception of the minor’s gender identity when it is inconsistent with their biological sex.
The bill defines “sex” as the biological indicators of male and female as determined by chromosomes, hormones, gonads, and genitalia present at birth.
The bill prohibits medical professionals from prescribing or administering drugs to delay normal puberty, prescribing hormones (testosterone, estrogen, or progesterone) in amounts greater than those normally produced, performing surgeries to alter the appearance of genitalia, or removing healthy body parts or tissues.
Minors born with a medically proven disorder of sexual development, diagnosed with a disorder of sexual development, or who require treatment for infections, injuries, diseases, or disorders caused by banned medical treatments are exempt from the bill.
A medical professional found to have violated the provisions of the bill can have their medical license or certification revoked.
If a medical professional has initiated treatment for a minor before July 1, 2023, and immediately terminating the treatment would cause harm to the minor, the treatment can continue for a period during which the minor’s use of the drug or hormone is reduced. This period cannot extend beyond Dec. 31, 2023.
An amendment proposed by one of the four Democratic senators in the state, which would have allowed minors access to puberty blockers for counseling purposes, was defeated.
The Republican-dominated Senate also turned down an amendment that would have mandated the South Dakota Department of Social Services to offer mental health counseling for minors struggling with gender dysphoria.
‘I Was Treated Negligently by My Health Care Provider’
Chloe Cole, who was 15 when she agreed to let a surgeon remove her healthy breasts and now regrets it, told the South Dakota Legislature that doctors lied to her parents to convince them to permit the surgery.Cole, who is now 18, said that doctors falsely told her parents that she was likely to kill herself if she didn’t transition.
“I was treated negligently by my health care provider. But the biggest failure they made, was encouraging and allowing me to medically transition as a child in the first place,” she said in testimony to the Legislature.
Cole said that her diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and being on the autistic spectrum were all considered to be part of her overall gender dysphoria.
“I do not have the choice of breastfeeding my future children because my breasts are gone,” she said. “I was told this ... by my surgeon but I did not understand the importance of breastfeeding, or even being a parent, because I was still a child. I am now grieving as an adult.”
Cole added that the skin grafts used to create areolas during her double mastectomy have developed problems and she now wears a bandage around her chest every day. She said the doctors who helped her to transition didn’t give her the appropriate care for the resultant problems.
“HB 1080 will protect other children and families in this state from medical experimentation and defend the greatest right that children have: the right to grow up into healthy adults who are able to live fulfilling lives,” Cole said.
