DeSantis Spread Misinformation to Push Trans Health Restrictions, Judge Says
The Associated Press.“When I’m analyzing the governor’s motivation, what should I make of these statements?” Hinkle asked. “This seems to be more than just hyperbole.”The restrictions on gender-affirming care were first enacted in March after the Florida Board of Medicine and Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine — at the urging of DeSantis, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, and the state Department of Health — approved rules to limit the accessibility of hormonal and surgical interventions.
DeSantis, who is currently seeking the Republican nomination for the presidency, subsequently signed a bill in May cementing those rules into state law.
Under the law, also known as SB 254, medical professionals are prohibited from providing gender-affirming treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, or surgery, to transgender minors.Similar laws restricting access to gender-affirming care for minors have been passed in 22 states in total.
While many of those laws have been challenged in court, only one — in Arkansas — has been declared unconstitutional. Judges have blocked such laws from being enforced in three states, including Florida, while laws have either taken effect or are slated to take effect in 2024 in several other states after conservative-leaning appeals courts declined to block such measures.Three Florida families with transgender children subsequently sued the state over those restrictions, arguing that the law will harm their children by denying them access to treatments that would lessen or resolve their feelings of gender dysphoria, and infringes on their right as parents to make medical decisions for their own children.The law also places restrictions on transgender adults’ ability to access gender-affirming care.
