US House to vote on transition medicine ban for anyone under 18

By Artemis T. Douglas and Jane Migliara Brigham

A sweeping federal escalation in assaults on trans rights and dignity is set to be voted on tomorrow, per the ACLU. 

The bill is H.R. 3492, which the ACLU confirmed will be voted on tomorrow, Dec. 17, classifies medical and social transition as “irreversible” harm. 

The original text of the bill applies to transition care for people under 18, but a proposed amendment would have changed that age limit to 21. It was not considered because the committee ran out of time and wanted to go home.

The language is similar to several other anti-trans bills and amendments which have been promoted in congress this year, with the goal of limiting as much trans healthcare as they can get away with.  

It punishes doctors, parents, and other caregivers by criminalizing acts that facilitate transition. 

It also appears to criminalize information about transition. This includes online or digital resources that are viewed across state or international borders.

This section is vague enough that it could be used to prosecute those who provide information on trans healthcare to children.  I cannot predict how this will be interpreted if enacted, but it could absolutely be used to treat speech on this topic as being legally analogous to directly providing the care.

The bill also specifies that mental and emotional health don’t count as health for the purpose of allowing for health exceptions.  This means that the risk of not being able to access care cannot be used as a justification to get it.

What is telling is not only the text of the bill, which is a complete assault on autonomy and dignity for trans youth and adults, but the opening committee remarks and the committee’s report on HR 3492, and its associated legislation, HR 498.

HR 498 would ban medicaid from providing funding to transition medicine by modifying the Social Security Act.  

The committee’s report on these pieces of legislation is especially informative as to the intentions of the legislative branch at this moment. 

The report opens with the text of the proposed bill, the need for the legislation, etc., all standard.

However, the context provided by the “need for the legislation” section shows that Congress is prepared to assault anyone who defies conservative gender norms; not just trans kids but adults as well.

The committee’s report also cites Trump’s executive orders as reasoning for this legislation and casts the 22 states that have restricted transition care legally as champions of “parental rights”, while explicitly decrying California and Washington as “leftist states”.

The use of the term “leftist states” is a telling dog whistle. They are building an association between the forms of healthcare that they want to ban and the states led by governments which oppose the current regime.

In the context where that exact pretext is benign used to justify raids by ICE into states that the administration does not favor, it is concerning that they are saying the same thing about people who allow children to transition. The infrastructure currently being used to rip apart undocumented families could just as easily be used to rip apart the families of trans kids.

The first amendment to this bill was added by Congressman Glenn Grothman (R) of Wisconsin, which would legally define the term ‘minor’ as meaning someone under 21 for the purposes of the bill. If successful, that would have meant that anyone providing someone under the age of 21 would have been charged with a class C felony.

Caption: Screenshot From H.R. 3492 - Protect Children’s Innocence Act | House of Representatives Committee on Rules

Thankfully, this amendment was not considered because the committee wanted to go home early.  As a result, only those providing transition care to those under 18 will be charged with felonies.

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Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R) of North Carolina opened the rules committee session with prepared remarks that included the following:

“H.R. 498, the Do No Harm in Medicaid Act, would prohibit federal funds allocated to Medicaid from being used for gender transition procedures for minors.

Specifically, this legislation amends the Social Security Act to include gender transition procedures for minors as a prohibited service under Medicaid.

At the same time, this legislation institutes the safeguarding of funding used for medically necessary treatments for genetic disorders, life-threatening illnesses, and other conditions.

The federal government should always serve as a good steward of taxpayer dollars – the American people demand this.

H.R. 498 offers another layer of accountability that can take another positive step forward in meeting that imperative.

Finally, we turn to H.R. 3492, the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, that would charge anyone who knowingly performs “gender-affirming care” – specifically the genital mutilation and chemical castration of children – with a class C felony.

The irreversible decisions of “gender-affirming care” are dangerous, and they present a clear threat to children who remain vulnerable at such young ages.

Children deserve to have long-term health and happiness and should not have to endure the consequences of unsound procedures that will scar them permanently.

This legislation and the President’s actions send a clear message: the federal government will no longer tolerate the abuse and exploitation of children by the radical gender ideology of the Left.

I look forward to today’s discussion and hearing from our witnesses on the three pieces of legislation before us today.”

In other words, cis people who need similar medicine will be protected, but trans people will be denied them. Anyone who tries to help a trans person would become a felon, meaning they will lose their voting rights and be sent to prison.

Both pieces of legislation also carve out protections for nonconsensual surgeries conducted on intersex kids, allowing their bodies to be made more ‘normal' in the eyes of conservatives, whether the kids themselves want that or not.  These same surgeries are banned for trans kids.

They also allow for the use of puberty blockers for children who have precocious pubertys, meaning they start puberty earlier than intended.  However, these same medications are banned for trans kids.

The double standard is made explicit in both laws.  Trans people are being denied the exact same medicine that is made freely available to cis people.

These bills must be stopped at all costs.