House Republicans are advancing a bill they say protects transgender children from undergoing irreversible procedures.
Critics of the bill include more than twenty South Dakota pediatricians, who say the bill distorts the relationship between patients and physicians.
House Bill 1057 prohibits medical professionals from proscribing puberty blocking medication, as well as performing surgeries meant to affirm the perception of a minor’s sex.
According to Sanford Health officials, of the one million patients the health system treated in 2019, fewer than 20 were treated with gender dysphoria who were under the age of 18. Not all of were South Dakota residents.
Dr. Michelle Schimelpfenig is a pediatrician at Sanford health in Sioux Falls and South Dakota chapter president of the American academy of pediatrics.
She is one of twenty two pediatricians who oppose the legislation.
“This bill is concerning because it directly impacts the relationship we have with our patients and physicians,” Schimelpfenig says. “It allows legislation to come in and make decisions, rather than letting medical professionals do that in the context of their patients and families.”
Schimelpfenig urges lawmakers not to make medical professionals choose between evidence-based care or jail.
Republican Representative Fred Deutsch is the prime sponsor. He says there’s disagreement in the medical community.
“I know there are pediatricians that support the bill,” Deutsch says. “I don’t know that any spoke out here in the room. But, I know there are a host of pediatricians that support the bill.”
Deutsch says puberty blocking medication and the procedures listed in the bill are a “medical experiment on children.”
The House State Affairs committee amended the bill to reduce the charge from a felony to a class one misdemeanor, which now only applies to licensed medical professionals, and reduces the age ban from 18 to 16. The bill passed 8 to 5. It now heads to the house floor.
