Thursday, April 13, 2023

Missouri effectively banned gender-affirming care

Update

Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria ("America's most unhinged, unelected official, Nov 21, 2023) offer this retrospective in Popular Information:

"In March 2023, Bailey announced that he was unilaterally implementing emergency regulations that would impose severe restrictions on transgender hormone therapy for children and adults. What authority did Bailey cite to justify circumventing the legislature? The Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. Bailey's actions were condemned by Democrats and Republicans.

Bailey proposed requiring 15 hourly therapy sessions over 18 months before any person could receive hormone therapy. Doctors would also need to certify that "for at least the 3 most recent consecutive years, the patient has exhibited a medically documented, long-lasting, persistent and intense pattern of gender dysphoria" and "any existing mental health comorbidities of the patient have been treated and resolved." Further, doctors would need to have in place a system to monitor "all patients beginning the first day of intervention and continuing for a period of not fewer than 15 years."

People sued, and a state judge temporarily blocked the rule. Then, Legum and Zekeria write, "in May, the Missouri legislature then passed a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors. Shortly thereafter, facing increasing criticism from all sides, Bailey withdrew the rule" that would have applied to all ages.

Learn more about LGBT rights in Missouri (Wikipedia).

Previously

Bailey cited Emily Bazelon's piece in the New York Times as justification.

Headline: Missouri to restrict medical care for transgender adults, citing consumer protection law
Archive.org

Missouri's existing standard for adults was informed consent. The new regulation was to take effect April 27, 2023 (with only two weeks' notice).

Please read my article, An exploding rocket is a success, but trans people can’t get hormones? It's a 4-minute read on Medium.

Reactions

On April 13, 2023

Erin Reed tweeted: "Requires 3 years of dysphoria, 18 months of therapy sessions, doesn't allow people with autism/depression. This is what elimination of transgender people looks like."
Chase Strangio tweeted: "When I started practicing law 13 yrs ago, categorical bans on care were clearly understood to violate the 8th Amendment's prohibition on Cruel & Unusual Punishment in prisons."

On April 14, 2023

@CromartieMd tweeted: "Understand that if you let the attorney general dictate the standard of care to you, you are making a choice to deviate from the medical standard of care and you are completely unprotected as a practitioner"
Ari Drennen tweeted: "I read the endnotes. Bailey's rule cites debunked studies on social contagion, fearmongers about autism without attempting to justify the concern, and makes it effectively impossible for adults to transition. Everyone should worry about this nakedly unconstitutional escalation."
Gillian Branstetter tweeted that if this rule were to take effect it would be a "disastrous and watershed moment in this country's political history." She connected it to "the Texas DFPS order last year and this mifepristone ban, it's just the raw exertion of state powers invented from whole cloth against people with little recourse and by people who expect to face no accountability or checks on said power." She added: "The expulsion of the duly elected officials in TN, the presumed infallibility of our police state, the valorizing of racist vigilantes. There's an explicit turn happening in our politics and we are all tied to the tracks."

angry red robot

See: Missouri Hospital Sues State AG Over Gender Care Records Requests. WJLA. April 15, 2023.

Update: ACLU sues

"ACLU Sues To Block Missouri Rule On Transgender Health Care: The ACLU is suing to block new Missouri restrictions on both adults and children seeking gender-affirming health care." Heather Hollingsworth and Summer Ballentine. April 24, 2023.

One of the mega-trolls

Matt Walsh April 13: This is outrageous. You shouldn’t be allowed to change your gender at all. Second tweet: Grown men with wives and children do not deserve any sympathy or understanding if they decide to “transition.” It is the ultimate act of family-wrecking narcissism. An unthinkable betrayal of your marriage vows and your duties as a father.
August 22, 2023, Lee Shevek tweets: Reminder that they didn’t just ban trans healthcare for youth in Missouri, they banned it for incarcerated trans adults as well! There needs to be a lot more noise about that imo. Incarcerating a trans person in Missouri is now a means of forcibly detransitioning them. To which Erin Reed responds: This is extremely important to note. If you are incarcerated right now in multiple states, they intend to fully detransition you forcibly. It’s vile.

Earlier:

In October 2023, this column: "In places like Missouri and Oklahoma, conservative legislators have gone even further, arguing that age restrictions on gender-affirming care should be raised to 25 or 26 — far older than the states’ legal ages of majority." — Grayson Stevens. "I Received Gender-Affirming Care As A Minor. It Wasn’t What I Expected." "I quickly realized that as a teen, there would be elements of my gender transition that were fully beyond my control." HuffPost Personal. Oct 13, 2023

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