AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Senate on Monday approved a bill to ban certain medical treatments for transgender minors, after stripping out an amendment that would have allow current patients to continue receiving care.
Senate Bill 14 was passed by a vote of 19-11 along partisan lines after removing the amendment, which had been added last week. The bill, a priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s, needs one more vote of approval in the Senate before it can head to the Texas House for further debate.
Bill author Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, suggested the amendment grandfathering in people already getting the treatments during debate on the Senate floor last week. The House author of an identical bill also supported the amendment, which would have allowed minors receiving gender-affirming medical care 90 days before the bill goes into effect on Sept. 1 to continue those treatments.
But Campbell reversed course on Monday, moving to strike her own amendment. She said she was changing her mind because the amendment wasn’t debated thoroughly enough ahead of voting.
“The amendment was not discussed in committee, and there were so many questions that have been brought up since the amendment was put on that, out of respect for the body, we’re going to just take it down,” said Campbell, an ER doctor.
Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, pointed out that the Senate passed the amendment without opposition last week and asked why the change of heart. Campbell responded, “It was a surprise amendment to the body.”
Matt Rinaldi, a former lawmaker representing Irving and the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, voiced public disapproval of the amendment last week. The party’s Twitter account celebrated the bill’s passage Monday.
Campbell’s bill in its current form would bar physicians from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery to treat gender dysphoria in patients under the age of 18. These treatments are commonly referred to as gender-affirming care. It would also require the state medical board to revoke the medical licenses of violators, and bar taxpayer money from entities or individuals that provide these treatments to minors.
The bill does not prohibit the same treatments for intersex youth, or for non-transgender youth experiencing issues like precocious puberty.
The Mayo Clinic defines gender dysphoria as the feeling of discomfort or distress that might occur in people whose gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth. Transgender means identifying as a different gender than one’s sex at birth.
Nine other states have signed bills banning gender-affirming care for minors into law, some within the last few weeks.
Several bills are advancing in the Legislature that would negatively affect LGBTQ rights. Others would restrict, and in some cases criminalize, certain drag performances, and require collegiate athletes to compete according to their sex at birth.
Hundreds of pro-LGBTQ bills have also been filed, including one that was debated last week to remove the state’s decades-old unconstitutional ban on gay sex.
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