Gender-affirming care ban approved by West Virginia Senate Health Committee

The bill now heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee for review.

HB 2007 would prohibit a physician from providing irreversible gender reassignment surgery or medication for gender-affirming care, such as hormones or puberty blockers, to a person who is under 18. A committee amendment would make the bill effective starting Jan. 1, 2024.

Debate on the bill pitted Senate Majority Leader and committee Vice Chairman Tom Takubo and Sen. Eric Tarr, a physical therapist and business owner, against each other.

Takubo, R-Kanawha, offered three unsuccessful amendments to the bill. One amendment would have returned the bill to its original form, only banning irreversible gender reassignment surgeries. One amendment would have banned taxpayer funding for gender-affirming care for adolescents. And another amendment would have lowered the age of consent for medication gender-affirming care to 16.

“What this small subset of individuals are going through has to be traumatic,” Takubo said. “We, as a legislative body, are taking a dramatic overreach when we are stepping into a field of medicine where it is proven — whether you agree or disagree with it — that a patient does better; their mental health, their ability to function, their suffering is made less by a therapy.”

The final amendment would have allowed current adolescent patients undergoing medication gender-affirming care prior to the effective date of the bill to continue their treatments. That amendment failed on a 7-7 tie. Tarr, R-Putnam, opposed every amendment offered by Takubo. He called all forms of gender-affirming care “child abuse.”

“This is still a step where the state is saying it’s OK to go in and abuse a child permanently,” Tarr said.

Senate Health Committee Chairman Michael Maroney, R-Marshall, supported Takubo’s final amendment, calling the denial of adolescent patients undergoing current treatment “cruel.”

“As a committee of mostly medically uneducated people, this is the equivalent to passing a law saying you can’t treat schizophrenia ... it’s the equivalent of saying you can’t give people drugs for chemotherapy,” Maroney said. “To take this step and prohibit those who are already being treated, to deny them continued treatment ... that’s not only uneducated, that’s cruel in my opinion.”

“That we as a Legislature would so drastically try to micromanage health care that we would step in and say you need to stop what you’re doing or how you’re being treated right now ... that’s some big government-type stuff right there,” said Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, speaking in favor of Takubo’s final amendment. “I just don’t feel comfortable as a legislator telling someone who is currently receiving treatment for their mental health disorder that they have to stop taking the medication.”

The committee heard testimony from Dr. Kacie Kidd, an assistant professor at West Virginia University in the Division of Adolescent Medicine and medical director for WVU Medicine’s Gender and Sexual Development Clinic.

Kidd said that West Virginia children diagnosed with gender dysphoria have a suicide rate 300% higher than other adolescents in the state. Kidd said medication gender-affirming care requires parental consent, only occurs after much discussion and is only considered for children who have hit puberty.

She said medication gender-affirming care is often reversible. The use of puberty-blocking medication is reversible if treatment ends. Hormone therapy can involve physical changes, but also can be reversed through other medications. Putting a stop to medication gender-affirming care would put adolescents in the state with gender dysphoria at greater risk of depression and suicide attempts.

“Transgender adolescents, like all young people, have the best chance to thrive when they are afforded and receive the doctor-provided medical care they need,” Kidd said. “Furthermore, this care is thoughtfully provided with extensive conversations about the potential risks and benefits. Denying medical care for transgender youth puts them at risk of serious harms, including depression, social isolation, self-hatred, self-harm, proven suicidal thoughts and attempts.”

Tarr, while questioning Kidd, questioned why WVU had a clinic that offers gender-affirming care and asked Kidd whether such a clinic would also treat children who self-identify as animals.

“Children who identify as furry animals ... is there any kind of medical research that has looked into that,” Tarr asked.

“I want to clarify here that is not a thing that is documented in the literature or any evidence that has happened to my knowledge,” Kidd said. “This is my medical specialty, and so that is not something that I’m aware of happening anywhere in our state or in any other state.”