Senate passes bill banning gender-affirming care for minors and limiting it for adults

Florida is one step closer to establishing a permanent ban on gender-affirming care for minors and placing hurdles in the way for adults who want the care.

The Senate voted 27-12 to advance a bill (SB 254) that would codify rules passed by the state’s two medical boards to ban the procedures for minors. The bill would also codify a Medicaid rule banning reimbursement for the procedures for people of all ages.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo have spearheaded the changes. SB 254 heads next to the House, which has been moving its own version of the ban (HB 1421).

The House and Senate bills are similar, but not identical. The House bill would ban private, commercial insurance policies from reimbursing gender-affirming care procedures. The Senate bill does not. 

Additionally, the House bill would allow minors who currently are being treated for gender-affirming care to continue to take puberty blockers through the end of the year only. The Senate bill would require the Florida medical boards to develop rules that set the standards for minor patients who currently are being treated with puberty blockers.

Meanwhile, SB 254 would ban gender-affirming care immediately upon becoming law for minors not currently being treated and makes it a third-degree felony for doctors who violate the law.

The bill would also bar any state funds from being used to provide gender-affirming or gender-conforming care. Gov. DeSantis had already amended Florida’s Medicaid rules to ban Medicaid from covering the care, a move which is being challenged in federal court. But the bill would go further, banning the state group health insurance plan and state universities from reimbursing for the costs of care as well, regardless of a person’s age.

By requiring adult patients seeking gender-affirming care to sign informed consent forms in the same room as their treating physicians, the bill would make it impossible for transgender adults to receive services through telehealth.

A number of Democrats spoke against the bill Tuesday before the chamber voted to pass it.

Sen. Lori Berman, a Boynton Beach Democrat, said the bill contradicts DeSantis’s oft-used claim that Florida is a “free state.”

“I would say free states don’t ban health care,” Berman said, noting that national medical associations have endorsed gender-affirming care for minors. “This bill is wrong on the way it attacks transgender adults, wrong on the way it attacks parents’ rights to raise their children, and wrong on how it puts medical professionals at risk.”

Sen. Shevrin Jones said lawmakers should represent all the people in their districts, not just the ones who look and act like they do.

“Which leads me to make it clear to this entire body that although you might not know it, you have not just gay people who live in your district, but I’m sure you probably have some transgender men and women who live in your district also,” he said.

“When we take that oath of office, we don’t take the oath of office and say, ‘I’m going to go support the people who look like me, act like me and do like I do.’ We take the oath of office to say we are going to support. and we will protect. all people.”

Meanwhile, to ensure that the ban on gender-affirming care is s being complied with, the legislation would require every licensed hospital and physician surgery office to sign attestation forms confirming they don’t provide gender-affirming care to minors and return the forms to the state by July 1, 2023.

The Agency for Health Care Administration would be required to revoke the licenses of hospitals that don’t comply with the law. Meanwhile, physician surgery offices that don’t comply with the requirement could lose their registrations.