New Hampshire is the primary Northeastern state to ban gender-affirming well being take care of minors after its Republican governor gave ultimate approval to payments that can ban the usage of sure prescription drugs and surgical procedures to deal with gender dysphoria starting subsequent yr.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a former U.S. senator who gained New Hampshire’s gubernatorial election in November, signed two payments Friday limiting entry to transition-related care within the state, which already prohibits uncommon genital surgical procedures for minors to transition.
H.B. 377 prohibits docs from administering puberty blockers and hormones to transgender youth beginning Jan. 1. Like a handful of different, comparable measures adopted by practically all Republican-led states, New Hampshire’s prohibition features a “grandfather clause” that permits minors already receiving care to proceed doing so even after the legislation goes into impact.
The second invoice, H.B. 712, builds on New Hampshire’s present restrictions on gender-affirming surgical procedure. The measure, which may also take impact in January, bars adolescents youthful than 18 from present process sure procedures when they’re used to deal with gender dysphoria, together with facial feminization or masculinization surgical procedure and “transgender chest surgery.”
In an announcement, Ayotte mentioned, “Medical decisions made at a young age can carry lifelong consequences, and these bills represent a balanced, bipartisan effort to protect children.”
The New Hampshire Home accredited H.B. 377 in June, with two Democrats — state Reps. Dale Girard and Jonah Wheeler — voting with practically all Republicans to advance the measure. Eleven Democrats have been excused from voting. New Hampshire senators accredited the invoice in a 16-8 party-line vote.
Wheeler joined Home Republicans once more in voting to go H.B. 712, and 11 Democrats once more have been excused. The state Senate accredited the measure in June in one other vote alongside get together traces.
New Hampshire state Rep. Lisa Mazur, a Republican and the prime sponsor of each payments, celebrated their approval Friday in a publish on the social platform X.
“My two bills that will protect NH kids from irreversible harm were just signed into law by Gov. Ayotte. We are now the 1st state in New England the whole Northeast to do so. Go NH!!” Mazur wrote.
In June, whereas defending H.B. 377, Mazur pointed to a current Supreme Courtroom ruling that upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming take care of minors. “It is now legal and constitutional for states to regulate and or ban the use of these harmful drugs in minors,” she mentioned.
LGBTQ rights teams instantly condemned Ayotte’s signature on the payments, which they mentioned ignore testimony from transgender youth who’ve benefited from gender-affirming care and statements from main medical organizations that such take care of transgender adults and minors is medically crucial and may be lifesaving.
“It is heartbreaking to witness lawmakers inserting themselves into deeply personal, private conversations between families, their doctors, and their children,” Julia Hawthorne, a board member of the state LGBTQ rights group 603 Equality, wrote on Fb.
Linds Jakows, the group’s founder, mentioned transgender younger folks in New Hampshire “are not only tangibly losing access to life-saving healthcare — but also receiving a disturbing message of rejection from their state government.”
“To youth impacted by these bills, please know: You are loved, you are worthy of respect and dignity, and there is a community here in New Hampshire and beyond that is ready to support you,” they mentioned.
The Marketing campaign for Southern Equality, an LGBTQ rights group that has since 2023 distributed greater than $900,000 in grants to households of transgender youngsters needing to journey out-of-state for gender-affirming care, introduced Friday that it could develop its Trans Youth Emergency Mission into New Hampshire.
“Every day I speak with families of transgender youth who are worried about the future. Many are panicking, unsure of where or when they’ll get the medicine that their child needs to continue leading a healthy, happy life,” mentioned Van Bailey, a affected person navigator for this system. “These laws are cruelly thrusting families into impossible choices, and it is deeply unfair.”
