Louisiana lawmakers reassert ban on gender-affirming care, overriding veto

[July 20, 2023]  By Rachel Nostrant
 
(Reuters) - A ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children is due to take effect in Louisiana on Jan. 1, after the state legislature overrode Governor John Bel Edwards' veto of the bill, according to state officials.  

Governor of Louisiana John Bel Edwards looks on during a news conference at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve site at Bayou Choctaw, Louisiana, U.S. May 24, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman/File Photo

The legislature, which acted late on Tuesday, becomes the latest Republican-led state to ban trans-focused healthcare.

Louisiana's House Bill 648 - called the "Stop Harming Our Kids Act" - bans hormone treatments and puberty-blocking drugs, gender-affirming surgeries and other related care for anyone under the age of 18.

Twenty other states have passed similar measures, most of them this year.

The House voted 75 to 23 in favor of overriding the Democratic governor's veto, while the Senate voted 28 to 11 to override.

"Today, I was overridden for the second time, on my veto of a bill that needlessly harms a very small population of vulnerable children, their families, and their health care professionals," Edwards said in a statement.

In the previous override, involving a redistricting of the state's congressional map, a court later sided with him, said Edwards, governor since 2016.

Edwards said he expects the court will throw out this "unconstitutional bill as well."

Gabe Firment, the Republican representative who authored the bill, said Louisiana was simply following the lead of “every single southern state" that had passed similar legislation.

"We cannot allow Louisiana to become a sanctuary state for the sterilization of innocent children," he said in a statement before the override vote.

Judges in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee have all found that such bans infringe on the right to equal protection under the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Judges have said laws banning such care violate a parent's right to make healthcare decisions on behalf of their children.

Lawsuits challenging such laws in Montana and Georgia have yet to be ruled on, with a third in Oklahoma set aside until the case can be heard in court.

Another bill that would have banned discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity at public schools, and one that sought to stop students from using preferred names and pronouns also were up for votes in the Louisiana House for an override. Neither secured enough votes to get off the House floor.

(Reporting by Rachel Nostrant; Editing by Howard Goller)

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