Anti-Transgender Healthcare Bills
These bills attempt to block transgender young people’s access to transgender-related healthcare. They differ slightly, but all are focused on stripping affirming medical care away from young people in South Carolina and interfering with the medical decisions made between patients, their family members, and their medical providers.
One (S.274) would ban transgender-related healthcare for people under the age of 21. It would also place new, burdensome restrictions on transgender-related healthcare for people 21 and older, and it would ban state funding from being used to support transgender residents. The bill would also require staff at schools in SC to share with students’ parents if they learn that a student may be transgender, dangerously forcing staff to “out” transgender students. The other two bills would ban transgender-related healthcare for people under the age of 18.
Every major medical association, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Medicine, recognizes that supporting transgender youth is critical to their health and well-being.
Patients and their health care providers, not politicians, should decide what medical care is in the best interest of a patient – and gender-affirming care is medically necessary care that helps transgender people be safe, seen, and comfortable in who they are. These bills dangerously insert the state into the patient-provider relationship.
Read a full overview of these anti-transgender healthcare bills here.