New Idaho Law Criminalizes Transgender Surgeries, Medications for Children

Idaho Gov. Brad Little gestures during a press conference at the Statehouse in Boise, Idaho, on Oct. 1, 2020. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman via AP)

Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed into law a bill that makes it a crime for doctors to provide children with “gender-affirming” surgeries or medications, including puberty blockers.

Under the new law, dubbed the “Vulnerable Child Protection Act,” health professionals could be charged with a felony and punished with up to 10 years in prison if they knowingly perform surgeries or provide medications to a child in order to help “affirm the child’s perception of the child’s sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child’s biological sex.”

The law specifically bans a host of surgeries involving sterilization and genital mutilation from being performed on people under 18. Among those irreversible procedures is mastectomy (the removal of breasts) as well as phalloplasty and vaginoplasty, the surgical construction of flesh structures resembling male and female genitalia, respectively.

It also bans administering or supplying a child with puberty blockers or other medications that induce “profound morphologic changes” or “transient or permanent infertility” in the child.

The finalized version of the bill is amended with an exception for children born with a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development, such as those who don’t have the normal sex chromosome structure or sex steroid hormone production.

Before advancing to the Republican governor’s desk, the bill passed the state Senate in a vote of 22–12, with all but five Republicans voting in favor of it. The state House in February approved the bill in a 58–12 vote, with all 11 Democrats and one Republican voting in opposition to it.

“In signing this bill, I recognize our society plays a role in protecting minors from surgeries or treatments that can irreversibly damage their healthy bodies,” Little wrote in a letter to Idaho’s House speaker. “However, as policymakers we should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children.”

The law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

Democrats Respond

Opponents of the measure claim that this will lead to more suicides among minors who believe they are transgender. In a statement on behalf of the Idaho Democratic Party, state Rep. Lauren Necochea said that those treatments have “proven to reduce suicidality, anxiety, and depression among transgender youth.”

“Governor Little just signed away the rights of loving parents to access the medical care they choose for their children,” Necochea said, adding that she’s hopeful a legal challenge will strike down the new law before it goes into effect next year.

“Nevertheless, this action sends a cruel message to our transgender youth. It’s a dark day for Idaho and history will not look kindly on the Republican lawmakers who enacted this legislation.”

Several other Republican-led states are seeking to make laws that would criminalize performing “gender-affirming” medical intervention on children. In fact, much of the core language of Idaho bill is almost identical to bills that have been proposed in Kansas, Texas and Wyoming.