(WV) GOP passes trans health care ban specifically targeting trans youth...

[Jessica_Rose]

GOP passes trans health care ban specifically targeting trans youth with suicide risk

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/gop-passes-trans-health-care-ban-specifically-targeting-trans-youth-with-suicide-risk/ar-AA1EcIzJ?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=9b5dd371fc744535dd1af0b15f49feb5&ei=121

Story by Molly Sprayregen (5 May 2025)

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey (R) has signed legislation expanding the state's gender-affirming care ban for trans youth.

While a 2023 law already banned the safe and lifesaving practice for most trans minors, there was an exception in place for those at risk of suicide or self-harm. The new law removes that exception.

The original ban went into effect in January 2024 and allowed doctors to prescribe puberty blockers and hormone therapy to teens who were considered at risk for self-harm or suicide.

Such teens had to get parental consent as well as a diagnosis of severe gender dysphoria from two doctors, one of whom was a mental health care provider. From there, any medication had to be prescribed at the lowest possible dose necessary to "treat the psychiatric condition and not for purposes of gender alteration."

S.B. 299 says any medical professional who provides gender-affirming care to someone under 18 will have their license revoked. It also allows patients to sue medical professionals for up to two years after "an actual or threatened violation."

The law also clarifies the state's legal definition of sex, which it says "means the state of being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth,"... It also directly mentions intersex people, saying they are "not members of a third sex and must be accommodated consistent with state and federal law."

[D'Amalie]

"not members of a third sex and must be accommodated consistent with state and federal law."

I can't fathom what that parses to.  What does it even mean?