Missouri, Kansas transgender bills could criminalize health care services

(KSHB) – Bills moving through the Missouri and Kansas legislatures would criminalize some health care services and limit access to sports for transgender youth.

Advocates in the LGBTQ community say these bills only hurt transgender children, while the lawmakers behind them say it’s a move to protect children.

Kansas House Bill 2210 and Missouri House Bill 33 would make it a crime for doctors to perform any gender-reassignment services, procedures or surgeries for transgender children under 18, which includes puberty blockers and hormone therapy.

Gender reassignment surgeries are widely restricted to people older than 18.

Missouri’s bill also includes parents who help or support their children in undergoing these medical treatments, requiring that they be reported to the state children’s division.

“Our kids hear that,” Shira Berkowitz with PROMO Missouri says, “and we’re doing everything we can to make sure they’re supported by their parents, by the adults in their lives, and know there is much larger support system for them than these bills set to attack them.”