Mar 25, 2024
CHEYENNE, WY – Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed a bill that bans harmful puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and irreversible mutilating surgeries for minors. Gov. Gordon signed SF 0099, also known as the “Children Gender Change Prohibition,” after the state Senate overwhelmingly passed it 26-5 and the House passed it 36-25. Wyoming is now the 24th state to protect children from these experimental procedures.
According to the new law, a medical practitioner may not: “Perform a surgery that sterilizes the child, including castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, metoidioplasty, orchiectomy, penectomy, phalloplasty and vaginoplasty. In addition, health care providers may not “Perform a mastectomy; Provide, administer, prescribe or dispense…drugs that induce transient or permanent infertility” including “puberty suppression or blocking prescription drugs to stop or delay normal puberty;” or “Remove any otherwise healthy or nondiseased body part or tissue.”
The law also enacts penalties for health care professionals who provide these procedures to minors, such as revoking or suspending licenses to practice in the state.
Similar laws in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Oklahoma have been upheld by federal courts, while laws in Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Montana, and Idaho are temporarily blocked as legal challenges are adjudicated. In Arkansas, a federal judge declared in June 2023 that its “Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act” was unconstitutional. However, Arkansas has appealed the ruling, and the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals approved the state’s request for all 11 judges on the Court, rather than a three-judge panel, to hear its appeal.
In addition to being physically mutilating, the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) stated in a position statement that there is no “long-term evidence” these procedures improve mental health. ACPeds, a 600-member national organization of health care professionals, also declared that they could not “condone” puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and mutilating surgeries on gender-confused minors. Numerous studies show that these mutilating procedures do not relieve gender confusion, which is linked to other underlying mental health issues. ACPeds further noted the “unfortunate” nature of how politicized health care for gender confusion has become, and recommended medical societies begin to align with the “best evidence available” which shows mental health therapy should be the “first line of treatment” for gender confusion. Data shows up to 88 percent of girls and up to 98 percent of boys with gender confusion “will desist” when they receive counseling that is “directed toward underlying psychological issues.”
Yet, the “gender surgery industry,” which is expected to grow to a $5 billion industry by 2030, continues to surgically mutilate children and adults while ignoring this growing amount of research and data.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Medical mutilation is not the answer to gender confusion. While many states are passing laws to protect children, more states need to act before children are irreversibly harmed.”
For more information about state laws protecting against gender ideology, visit Liberty Counsel’s website here.
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