La. lawmakers override governor's veto of gender-affirming care for minors ban

July 19 (UPI) -- The Republican-controlled Louisiana legislature has overturned a governor's veto in order to pass a controversial bill that bans minors from receiving gender-affirming healthcare.

With the veto override, Louisiana is posed to join the roughly 20 other states that have banned both surgical and medicinal forms of gender-affirming healthcare for those under the age of 18, despite every major medical organization having endorsed the medical therapy.

House Bill 648 is to take effect Jan. 1, banning medical professionals under the threat of having their licenses revoked from "knowingly committing any act that attempts to alter a minor's appearance or to validate a minor's perception of his sex if the minor's perception is inconsistent with his biological sex."

The ban includes the prescribing and administrating of medicines, including puberty blockers, and the performing of surgery, which is rarely done and, according to guidance from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, is "[t]ypically used in adulthood or case-by-case in adolescence."

According to the Louisiana Department of Health, zero gender-affirming surgeries were performed on minors in the state between 2017 and 2021.

The Louisiana legislature had initially passed the bill last month and sent it to the desk of Gov. John Del Edwards, a Democrat, who vetoed on the grounds that it denies healthcare to "a very small, unique and vulnerable group of children" and "takes away parental rights to work with a physician to make important healthcare decisions for children experiencing a gender crisis that could quite literally save their lives."

That veto was overridden Tuesday by a 76-23 vote in the state's House and a 28-11 vote in the state's Senate.

"Today, I was overridden ... on my veto of a bill that needlessly harms a very small population of vulnerable children, their families and their healthcare professionals," Edwards said in a statement Tuesday.

"I expect the courts to throw out this unconstitutional bill."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana condemned the override, accusing the lawmakers who voted in favor of overturning the veto to having chosen "to sacrifice the health and safety of Louisiana's transgender children and undermine the rights of their parents."

"This is extreme government overreach and a direct threat to the civil liberties and constitutional rights of all Louisianans," the ACLU of Louisiana said in a statement.

"We condemn today's override of HB648, and we will never stop fighting to protect the rights of transgender youth and their families."

According to the Wilson Institute at UCLA, there are an estimated 4,000 transgender youth between the ages of 13 and 17 in the state.