Idaho bill to criminalize health care for transgender minors heads to House

Dr. Neil Ragan, a family physician in Pocatello, told lawmakers Tuesday that his gender-affirming care has saved lives.

Transgender patients, who received gender-affirming treatment as minors, later told him they would have killed themselves if they hadn’t received it, Ragan said during a hearing on a bill that would ban doctors from providing gender-affirming care to minors.

“Give parents, physicians and behavioral health specialists and patients the space that we all need to provide evidence-based care for our patients,” Ragan said.

The committee approved the bill on a party-line vote after hours of tense public testimony. Sponsored by Rep. Bruce Skaug, R- Nampa, and the Idaho Family Policy Center, a religious lobbying group, the legislation would make it a felony for medical providers to offer puberty blockers, hormone therapies and transition-related surgeries to minors – treatment that transgender people, their family and friends said can be life-saving.

Supporters of the bill said gender-affirming care makes irreparable changes to a child’s development.

“We do not allow minors to get tattoos, smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, sign legal documents,” Skaug said. “Why would we allow them to make decisions to cut away healthy bodily organs and to start down the road to chemical castration at age 12?”

Medical experts offer conflicting testimony

Two Statehouse rooms were needed to accommodate the people hoping to testify and watch Tuesday’s hearing on Skaug’s bill.

Several parents with transgender children and several doctors spoke against the bill, although medical experts were divided over the issue and offered conflicting testimony.

Dr. Brandon Mickelsen, a family doctor from Pocatello and president of the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians, an 800-member nonprofit advocacy group, urged the committee to oppose the legislation because it would remove doctors’ options to care for transgender minors experiencing “severe pain.”

“It’s a pain that you and I don’t, and can’t, fully understand,” Mickelsen said. “You can choose to declare that it’s not morally or ethically OK for them to be going through this kind of pain. But that doesn’t change the fact that the pain is real.”

Dr. Rodney Story, a Moscow family physician who supports the bill, said the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians’ stance on gender-affirming care has caused a rift among members.

“Many have left the organization, including myself, because we feel that that organization is out of step with a good approach to medical care, including transgender care,” Story said.

Shelley Canalia, of Pocatello, said her transgender son, now 24, tried to take his own life five times starting at age 12 and sought gender-affirming care only after “extensive” therapy.

“The idea that this is some sort of quick fix, it is not,” Canalia said. “Gender dysphoria is not discomfort, it is a pain. Watching your child experience that is horrifying.”

Democrats accuse GOP of hypocrisy

The committee’s 14 Republicans supported advancing the bill, and three Democrats opposed it.

Rep. Julianne Young, R- Blackfoot, explaining her support, said she’s concerned gender-affirming care is a “quick fix” that could lead to “bigger problems” long term.

“As a mother who has a deep appreciation for what it means to be a woman, you can deconstruct your sexual function, you can impede your sexual function, but you can’t recreate the healthy function of the opposite sex in an individual,” Young said. “I believe that we have a responsibility to prioritize the preservation of the long-term physical health and function of children.”

Democrats said the proposal denying parents’ right to choose medical care for their children contradicts actions by Republicans, who have ardently defended parental rights in the past.

Idaho law protects parents who withhold life-saving medical care from their children if it goes against their religious beliefs. Republicans in recent years shot down attempts to repeal the law.

“We give parents incredible power over their children,” said Rep. Colin Nash, D-Boise, who said he has a sibling who’s transgender. “I would have a real problem passing this law restricting a great deal of medical care that we’ve seen, that I’ve personally seen benefits for, while at the same time allowing faith-based exemptions to withhold things like insulin from children that need it to survive.”

Eight deaths tied to faith healing have occurred since 2020 in Canyon County, the Idaho Statesman recently reported.

Skaug’s bill now heads to the full House, which overwhelmingly passed a previous version of the proposal. Senate GOP leaders declined to give that bill a hearing last year.

In a news release at the time, the Senate GOP caucus said the legislation “undermines parental rights and allows the government to interfere in parents’ medical decision-making authority for their children.”

Republicans have recently introduced dozens of bills restricting transgender health care in 11 states, PBS recently reported. The Montana Legislature held a hearing on a bill similar to Skaug’s late last month.