“Merciless”: New Hampshire bans all gender-affirming care for trans minors

[Jessica_Rose]

"Merciless": New Hampshire bans all gender-affirming care for trans minors

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/08/merciless-new-hampshire-bans-all-gender-affirming-care-for-trans-minors/

Molly Sprayregen (4 Aug 2025)

New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) signed a gender-affirming care ban into law on Friday that bans anyone under 18 from using puberty blockers or hormone treatments for gender transition care.

Starting January 1, 2026, providers are barred from providing hormone care and puberty blockers only "if the performance or administration of the procedure or medication is for the purpose of altering or attempting to alter the appearance of or affirm the minor's perception of his or her gender or sex, if that perception is inconsistent with the minor's biological sex."

The ban does not hold medical providers criminally liable for violations, but rather subjects them to administrative disciplinary action by the state board of medicine. It also allows minors already receiving treatment to continue doing so. Minors and their parents can also sue medical providers for violating the law.

Ayotte also signed a second bill specially preventing minors from having top surgery except for "procedures needed to treat malignancy, injury, infection, or malformation and those needed to reconstruct the breasts after such procedures."

"Medical decisions made at a young age can carry lifelong consequences," Ayotte said in a statement, "and these bills represent a balanced, bipartisan effort to protect children."

Despite Ayotte calling the legislation bipartisan, the bills passed overwhelmingly along party lines. Only two Democrats voted for H.B. 377, and only one voted for the top surgery bill.

[Lori Dee]

Someone should sue the legislative representatives for practicing medicine without a license. I'd bet that none of them, including the governor, has a medical degree.

[Sarah B]

Hi Lori

You said,

Someone should sue the legislative representatives for practicing medicine without a license. I'd bet that none of them, including the governor, has a medical degree.

I have said similar statements before and I agree with you on suing them, but unfortunately you can not.  The same thing applies even here in Australia.

You can't actually sue legislators for passing laws, even if those laws regulate medical care.  Legislators are protected by legislative immunity and yes, all U.S. states and Congress provide legislative immunity to their lawmakers, though the source and scope can vary slightly.  Which shields them from lawsuits over anything they do as part of the lawmaking process.  That includes sponsoring or voting on laws, regardless of their content.

However, you can sue the officials and agencies who enforce the law, such as the governor, the health department or state boards, if you can show the law violates constitutional rights.  That is how most legal challenges work.  People sue the enforcers, not the lawmakers, often asking courts to block enforcement.

This is already happening.  In Tirrell and Turmelle v.  Edelblut, two New Hampshire students sued state education officials over a sports ban.  In another case, sixteen states and the District of Columbia filed PFLAG Inc.  v.  Donald J.  Trump, challenging a federal executive order that threatens providers of gender-related care.  Both cases targeted enforcement, not legislation.

So while suing the legislators will not work, there is a legal path available by challenging those who carry out the law rather than those who wrote it.

Best Wishes Always
Sarah B
Global Moderator
@Lori Dee