South Carolina Senate bans use of puberty blockers and genital mutilation of children

05/14/2024 / By Laura Harris

The Republican-led Senate of South Carolina has approved a comprehensive ban on so-called gender-affirming care for children.

House Bill 4624, which passed following a 27-8 Senate vote, prohibits medical professionals from administering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or performing gender reassignment surgeries for all patients under 18 years old. Any physician, mental health provider or healthcare professional found guilty of providing gender transition procedures to minors could face severe consequences, including the loss of their medical licenses and criminal charges of “inflicting great bodily injury upon a child.”

Under HB 4624, minors who have already begun using puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones before August 1, 2024, must be gradually weaned off these medications by January 31, 2025. The bill also bans the use of public funds for gender transition practices and prohibits Medicaid from covering or reimbursing these procedures. (Related: Texas enforces BAN on gender-related medical procedures for teens.)

The bill also contains provisions that reinforce parental rights on gender identity issues within schools.

HB 4624 also mandates that school principals or vice principals should inform parents or guardians if a student requests to use a name, nickname or pronoun that differs from the sex assigned at birth. Additionally, the bill prohibits school employees from hiding information about a child’s gender identity from their parents or encouraging children to withhold such information.

Initially, the House of Representatives passed the bill in January. However, the Senate made changes so either the House can vote to adopt the Senate version or it will go to a conference committee of three members from each chamber to resolve the differences.

In the amendment, mental health counselors can discuss banned treatments and suggest where they might be legally obtained. Healthcare providers can also permit puberty blockers for conditions such as precocious puberty for children as young as four years old.

The bill, which was approved on May 9, would take effect immediately once Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signs it.

Study: Puberty blockers have irreversible effects

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto criticized the bill and argued that the government has nothing to do with the “gender identities” of children.

“Children are born who they want to be. Parents deal with the children that come to them. Doctors have been trained to deal with children who are having issues like this. Government really has no role in this,” Hutto said. “Let the children be who they are.”

Doctors and parents who testified before legislative committees emphasized that minors in South Carolina do not undergo gender-transition surgeries, while hormone treatments only begin following extensive consultations with health professionals. They claimed that these treatments can be crucial to improving the mental health and overall well-being of transgender youth.

But supporters of the bill said puberty blockers increase tendency to self-harm and can have irreversible effects.

An analysis of a 2011 study revealed that at least 34 percent of children placed on puberty-blocking pharmaceutical drugs became “reliably deteriorated.” The study was conducted by the University College London Hospitals (UCLH) and the Tavistock Center Gender Identity Development Service.

The pool of those evaluated was only 44, so the sample size is small. Still, a good number of the kids aged 12 to 15 suffered greatly after being prescribed these poisons to become trans.

Head over to Gender.news for more stories about the pushback against transgenderism.

Watch this Epoch TV report about a California judge dropping a bombshell decision on a transgender-related case.

This video is from the GalacticStorm channel on Brighteon.com.