The attack on LGBTQ+ people continues as the South Carolina House of Representatives voted to approve a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors on January 17. The bill, Known as HB 4624 (“Help nor Harm”) is now set to go to the state senate, where the chair of the Medical Affairs Committee stated it would be a priority.
South Carolina is among the few states in the American South where healthcare for transgender patients under 18 isn’t barred. However, if this bill were to be approved and signed into law by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, South Carolina would join the majority of states, including North Carolina, who have banned gender-affirming care for children.
The bill passed by the South Carolina legislature would prohibit healthcare professionals from performing gender reassignment surgeries, giving minors puberty blockers or hormone treatment therapies and those under 26 who are on Medicaid cannot be covered by their insurance plans if they seek gender-affirming care.
Doctors, parents and trans-identifying individuals testified to lawmakers about how gender-affirming healthcare can be lifesaving in most situations. Health care professionals from South Carolina reemphasized they don’t perform gender reassignment surgeries on minors, and hormone treatments can only be authorized after extensive evaluations, ranging from physical exams to psychological tests.
Despite the mountains of research published in by medical experts solidifying the validity of gender-affirming care, Republican South Carolina Rep. John McCravy claimed there were “unpublished reports” showing puberty blockers increase the likelihood of self-harm in trans patients. He also called trans children “mentally disturbed youth” who need to be saved from doctors’ “mutilation,” which is similar to the rhetoric supporters of these trans healthcare bans have been spewing.
Another Republican Rep. RJ May, the vice chair of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, claimed the state’s Medicaid program covering gender reassignment surgeries or hormonal treatments was equivalent to “funding lifestyles” such as drug addiction.
South Carolina Democrats have accused the Republican Party of fear mongering, stigmatizing and ostracizing an already marginalized population. Democratic South Carolina Rep. Marvin Pendarvis said Republicans need to stop targeting marginalized groups and get back to doing the work people sent them into office to do.
“Is it really about protecting minors or is it about attacking a group of people that you don’t agree with [about] their lifestyle?” Pendarvis asked.