SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 19, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah’s House Health and Human Services Committee has rejected House Bill 92, which sought to prohibit doctors from performing some requested treatments, procedures and surgeries on transgender minors.
The house bill, sponsored by Rep. Rex P. Shipp (R, Dist.72), with Sen. Curtis S. Bramble (R, Dist. 16) as the Senate sponsor, says in its description that it “prohibits a physician or surgeon from performing a transgender procedure on a minor.”
It also “makes it ‘unprofessional conduct’ to perform a medically unnecessary puberty inhibition procedure or change a sex characteristic-altering procedure on a minor.”
The 14-page bill is largely made up of term definitions.
Sexual characteristic-altering procedures could include the administering of testosterone for a more male appearance or estrogen for a more female appearance, facial feminization surgeries, or “removing any otherwise healthy or non-diseased body part or tissue.”
Maryann Martindale, executive director, Utah Academy of Family Physicians, argued that parents and doctors do not make decisions lightly.
“We oppose any legislation that would seek to come between the sanctity of a doctor and their patient,” she said.
“I don’t doubt the sincerity of the sponsor but we believe this bill is cruel and comes from a place of misinformation and ignorance and will only serve to hurt the very kids they claim they are trying to protect.”
Another bill targeting transgender youth concerns limiting athletic participation by their gender at birth. Read about that bill, HB 302, by clicking here.
Read now rejected HB 92 below.
HB 92
