In Mississippi, transgender minors can no longer receive gender-affirming care after its extremist Republican governor Tate Reeves signed a bill that prohibits health care professionals from providing hormone treatments and surgical procedures.
Medical associations agree that gender-affirming care is appropriate for people with gender dysphoria, or the psychological distress that may result when a person’s gender identity and sex assigned at birth do not align (as defined by the American Psychiatric Association).
Mississippi’s ban outlaws the prescription and administration of puberty-blocking medication and cross-sex hormone therapy in patients under 18. It also prohibits surgery related to gender transition. The law similarly makes it illegal for people to “knowingly engage in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of gender transition procedures” to minors.
People who violate the conservative law will have their license to practice medicine in the state revoked. People who “assert an actual or threatened” violation of the ban can file civil suits “against any facility, individual or entity” for violating the law. The statute of limitations for bringing such suits is 30 years.
