ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia House committee on Tuesday sought to make it easier to sue doctors, and possibly charge them criminally, if they violate a proposed law barring some kinds of transgender treatment in the state for anyone younger than 18.
The House Public Health Committee voted 12-10 along party lines to pass Senate Bill 140, with majority Republicans passing the measure. The bill, which advances to the full House for more debate, would ban most transgender surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for children. However, unlike laws adopted in some other states, it would still allow doctors to prescribe medicines to block puberty.
It’s part of a nationwide effort by conservatives to restrict transgender athletes, transgender medical procedures and drag shows.
“This bill is simply to pause and allow people, allow young people to be a little bit more mature before they make a decision that is 100% irreversible, because once you have the surgeries, there’s no going back,” Sen. Carden Summers, a Cordele Republican sponsoring the bill, told the committee before a room overflowing with opponents.
Judges have temporarily blocked laws limiting the treatment of transgender youth in Arkansas and Alabama. In Georgia, opponents decry the state’s attempt to override what parents and physicians decide is best.