Emergency rule limiting gender-affirming care in Missouri is expected to go into effect this week
CNN —
Missouri’s attorney general is issuing an “emergency rule” limiting transgender care for minors and adults – a rule that is expected to go into effect this week, his office announced this month.
Gender-affirming care is medically necessary, evidence-based care that uses a multidisciplinary approach to help a person transition from their assigned gender – the one the person was designated at birth – to their affirmed gender, the gender by which one wants to be known.
The new rule claims people often take ‘life-altering interventions,” like pubertal suppression or gender transition surgery, “without any talk therapy at all,” and that the emergency action is “needed because of a compelling governmental interest and a need to protect the public health, safety, and welfare” of Missourians.
“The emergency regulation is based on dozens of scientific studies and reports, which are cited in endnotes,” state Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office said.
An organization that focuses on issues in transgender health, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and one of its affiliates, the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health, have said the rule is based in part on “flawed reports.”
“The emergency regulation issued by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is based upon manipulated statistics, flawed reports, and incomplete data, and prevents the provision of medically necessary care,” the associations said last month, reacting to an earlier announcement from Bailey’s office about the forthcoming regulation.
The rule is expected to go into effect Thursday and will expire February 6, 2024, a release from Bailey’s office reads.
Among other stipulations, the rule says it’s “unlawful” for individuals or health care providers to provide gender-affirming care without confirming that a patient has “for at least the 3 most recent consecutive years … exhibited a medically documented, long-lasting, persistent and intense pattern of gender dysphoria.”
The president and CEO of the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD called the measure “an unprecedented attempt to restrict an entire group of people.”
“The rule issued by Missouri’s attorney general includes outright lies and falsehoods about best practice care supported by every major medical association,” Sarah Kate Ellis said in a news release. “This is an unprecedented attempt to restrict an entire group of people from being able to make informed medical decisions in order to live and thrive.”
“Health care decisions need to remain between patients, their doctors, and their loved ones – not subject to the whim of craven politicians looking to score political points,” Ellis said. “GLAAD is sending all of our support to our organizational partners and activists in Missouri, who are working hard to undo this unconstitutional directive as soon as possible. Transgender people belong, and this rule will not stand.”
CNN has reached out to Bailey’s office for comment.
The action in Missouri comes after North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed a bill this week banning gender-affirming care for most minors with the possibility of a felony for health care professionals who provide it. Indiana and Idaho enacted their own bans on gender-affirming care for youths this month, and several other states have signed into law restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors in the past few years.
Source: CNN
