Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed into law Wednesday a veto-proof bill banning gender-affirming health care for transgender youth.
The bill, House Bill 1254, restricts trans health care in the state, immediately making it a crime to give gender-affirming care to people younger than 18.
PBS NewsHour reported the new law takes effect immediately and allows prosecutors to charge a health care provider with a felony — up to 10 years in prison and $20,000 in fines — for performing sex reassignment surgery on a minor.
It also enables prosecutors to charge a provider with a misdemeanor — up to 360 days in prison and $3,000 in fines — for giving gender-affirming medication, like puberty blockers, to a trans child.