Docs who help transgender youth could face prison time under Anthony Sabatini bill

Anthony Sabatini. Image via Colin Hackley.

Florida could go after doctors and health care providers that offer treatment to transgender teenagers under a bill filed this week by Rep. Anthony Sabatini, a Republican who has been repeatedly trashing House leaders in recent weeks.

Sabatini’s bill (HB 211) mirrors those that have been introduced in dozens of other states aimed at health care providers who treat transgender minors. The legislation says that health care providers could face a year in prison or be fined $1,000 if they prescribe or supply puberty-blocking medication or provide large doses of testosterone to females or estrogen to males.

The bill would create a new section of general health care law dubbed the “Vulnerable Child Protection Act” that would apply to nearly every licensed health care professional in the state ranging from medical doctors and osteopathic physicians to dentists, psychologists, counselors and physical therapists.

It also makes it a first degree misdemeanor for a medical doctor or osteopathic physician to sterilize, surgically remove the ovaries or testicles, or perform gender affirming surgery on a minor if the surgery was done “for the purpose of attempting to change the minor’s sex or for the purpose of affirming the minor’s perception of the minor’s sex.”

A broad catch-all phrase makes it illegal for a physician to remove “any otherwise healthy or non diseased body part or tissue,” if being done for a gender-affirming procedure.

Sabatini filed similar legislation for consideration during the 2021 Legislative Session, but the bill was never heard in committee. The 2021 bill also contained a provision that would have amended the state’s public education laws to ban transgender women from participating in sports.

The 2022 bill doesn’t propose any changes to the state’s public education statutes.

Sabatini, who is from Howey-in-the Hills, is running for Congress after a legislative career that has seen him repeatedly clash with GOP leaders. He has amped up his criticism of House Speaker Chris Sprowls recently, a tactic likely to render much of his legislative agenda dead-on-arrival.