Republicans Are Trying to Ban Transgender Health Care in These 26 States
ban gender-affirming care for teenagers under the age of 18 on Thursday, the state became the 26th in the country to push for limiting or banning health care for trans patients.Before Georgia, Republican legislators had taken similar initiatives in recent months in Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.In a number of these states, efforts to introduce legislation banning some form of health care for transgender patients—mostly teenagers under the age of 18—were significantly stronger than in others.While most states listed above count between one and two bills proposing to limit gender-affirming health care for trans teens, in Missouri legislators introduced 11 bills, in Oklahoma, 10 bills, and in Texas, 12.
In Tennessee and Mississippi, Republicans introduced seven such bills, along with six in South Carolina and five in Indiana.The Equality Federation, a group that advocates for the rights of the LGBTQ community and tracks all anti-trans legislative efforts across the country, from medical care bans to attempts to limit trans students' access to student athletics and other sports, has identified these recent bills as part of a nationwide, carefully coordinated push attacking the rights of trans youth in GOP-led states.Though other states had introduced similar legislation before, Arkansas became the first state to actually pass a bill banning transition-related health care for minors in 2021.
