South Carolina Bills Aim to Block Child Gender Surgeries, ESG-Based Investing

If passed, these bills would stop transgender-related medical intervention on children, increase parental oversight, and restructure state pensions.

The State Capitol building in Columbia, S.C., on June 24, 2009. Davis Turner/Getty Images

South Carolina Republicans are rejecting the far-left agenda with three current bills.

The Help Not Harm bill, or H4624, bans “gender transition procedures” for children under 18.

A second bill, the Prescriptions for Minors Act, also known as S882, makes it illegal for a doctor to prescribe medicine to a minor without parental consent.

A third, the ESG Pension Protection Act, or H3690, makes the state pension fund invest in companies based on profitability, not Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards.

Republicans hold veto-proof control of South Carolina’s House and Senate, and the governor, Henry McMaster, is also Republican.

Under the Help Not Harm bill, doctors who perform genital transgender surgeries on children will be guilty of inflicting “great bodily injury upon a child,” the bill reads.

The bill also bans cross-sex hormones and puberty-blocking drugs as a treatment in cases of gender transition. All these medicines can still be used to treat children who have genetic issues causing trouble in normal biological development. “Public funds may not be used directly or indirectly for gender transition procedures,” the bill states.

Those who perform transgender procedures can be subject to lawsuits or loss of medical license, the bill reads.

Public school employees “shall not knowingly withhold from a minor’s parent or legal guardian information related to the minor’s perception that his or her gender is inconsistent with his or her sex,” the bill states.

In a display of support, 44 House Republicans cosponsored the bill. This number makes up half of the state’s House Republicans.

No Democrat cosponsored the bill.

The bill passed the House by an 82–23 vote, including two Democrats in support. Eight Republicans and 10 Democrats were either absent or abstained. The bill is now in the Senate Committee on Medical Affairs.

“[Help Not Harm] was an important thing,” South Carolina state Rep. Mike Burns (R), told The Epoch Times. “It was on the priority list of maybe a half a dozen bills.”

It’s relatively uncommon for a bill to receive so many sponsors, he said. The large number of Help Not Harm sponsors indicates high support for the bill.

“Most everybody in the Family Caucus have signed on to this bill,” he said.

The bill has been in the works for a few years, Mr. Burns said. He said South Carolina hasn’t had many issues with child gender transition, but legislators want to be “proactive” on the issue.

“Five years ago, nobody was talking about kids changing their sex or trying to transition,” Mr. Burns said.

However, libraries, schools, and other sources have exposed middle school-aged children to these ideas, he said. As a result, the level of focus on transgender procedures for children has risen, he said.

South Carolina's state Rep. Mike Burns (R). Courtesy of Mike Burns

“Our Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), located in Charleston, had a unit to perform puberty blockers and perform these surgeries,” Mr. Burns said. “We didn’t know that. We didn’t have a clue that it existed here.”

MUSC regulations state that transgender care is available to “adults only,” according to its website.

But as recently as 2021, MUSC saw 102 transgender-identifying children, according to research that has since been removed from the website, but available in an internet archive.

The study noted that the annual number of transgender-identifying children seen in the Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic at MUSC has increased from one patient to 102 within a decade. The average age of patients was 13.6 years.

The study said that 20 percent of transgender-identifying children “received pubertal suppression and 50 percent received hormone affirming therapy and 38 percent patients were not on endocrine medications.”

The Epoch Times contacted MUSC, but received no comment by publication time.

“How far are you gonna go before you let them ruin young kids’ lives who aren’t able to make those kinds of decisions?” Mr. Burns said.

Medical Transparency

The Prescriptions for Minors Act has also received all its support from Republicans.

Its text states that a parent must be notified when a healthcare professional prescribes medication to a minor, and that a minor can’t be prescribed medicine without parental consent.

A pharmacist would be unable to fill a prescription for a minor without parental consent, the bill states. A parent also can’t be prevented from viewing a minor’s prescription history.

​​Currently, medication can be prescribed to 16- and 17-year-olds in South Carolina without their parents’ approval.

Treatments for sexually transmitted diseases involve prescription medication that minors might want to hide from parents, which critics say could result in untreated diseases. Birth control pills and Plan B, or the “morning after pill,” also require a prescription, as do abortion pills.

The bill has passed the South Carolina Senate and is in committee in the House.

A 7-year-old girl who thinks she is a boy plays with an iPad at home in Melrose, Mass., on May 9, 2017. Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images

Financial Decisions

The third bill, H3690, or the ESG Pension Protection Act, works to strengthen South Carolina’s pension fund by only allowing decisions to be based on “pecuniary factors.”

This cuts out the recent trend of investment in companies that prioritize factors based on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, such as diversity in leadership ranks, or a carbon footprint score, among other criteria.

Mr. Burns said the bill has received widespread bipartisan support because South Carolina’s pension funds have recently been through “a catastrophe.”

“It was massive underfunding and almost getting no return for a whole lot of money,” he said. “The state should have been better off.”

Conservatives have argued that investing based on a company’s ESG scores can ignore the financial reality of the business.

“The primary focus is on making a good return for the state,” Mr. Burns said. “Anything that prohibited that we’re not in for that.”

H3690 passed the South Carolina House in a 103–5 vote and the Senate in a 45–0 vote. It is now on Republican Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk waiting for signature.