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The Wyoming legislature passed a bill on March 7 that would ban gender-affirming care for minors in the state unless vetoed by the governor, USA Today reported.
Wyoming is the latest in a wave of at least 22 states that have put some sort of restriction on gender-affirming care for minors, which includes services like mental health counseling and speech therapy. Roughly 2% of the roughly 17.3 million high school students in the US identify as transgender, according to the CDC, and gender-affirming care has been shown to improve outcomes for the mental health and overall well-being of transgender youth.
Barring a veto from Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, the ban will take effect March 12, USA Today reported. The legislation bans the use of hormonal therapies as gender-affirming care for minors but doesn’t mention psychiatric forms of care, according to USA Today. Doctors who provide the banned services for minors could have their licenses suspended or revoked, the legislation states.
Wyoming doctor Joseph Horam testified that the legislation “puts physicians in conflict,” USA Today reported.
“Physicians have a sense of confusion, a sense of despair that we may lose our license just because we’re practicing medicine in the way that we think is properly conducted,” Horam said, as reported by USA Today. “This is affecting physician recruitment in the state of Wyoming.”
Wyoming is already facing a severe physician shortage: The state had 211.7 physicians per 100,000 people in 2020, the fourth lowest ratio of all 50 states, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Transgender youth have a much higher risk of suicide compared to cisgender children, but studies show gender-affirming care reduces suicide risk. Many national medical associations, including the American Medical Association, agree that gender-affirming care is medically necessary for transgender people.
“Gender-affirming care, at its most basic level, is about validating and supporting children and loving them for who they are as they explore their gender identity,” Jane Chang, an associate attending pediatrician at NewYork-Presbyterian, said to Health Matters, the health system’s online science and healthcare knowledge hub. “Gender-affirming care is evidence-based and done in a developmentally appropriate manner as we give patients and families the space to express the youth’s individual gender experience and journey.”