Consenting To Trans Care Under 21 Could Be A Felony In New Mississippi Bill

The crime carries a 10 year prison sentence. This is the latest in anti-trans bills that target adult populations. Some states continue to seek the criminalization of trans people and caregivers.

Gender affirming care bans have been moving around the country. Twenty states currently have bills that propose banning gender affirming care with cutoffs at various ages. Utah just passed its gender affirming care ban for trans youth through the Utah senate. It will further be heard by the Utah house. In Mississippi, a gender affirming care ban under the age of 18 just passed their state house by a 78-28 margin. Now, that same state house may consider a new bill that is both substantially cruel and also represents a major escalation should it pass. This bill would make gender affirming care in Mississippi classified as child abuse, would ban gender affirming care under 21 years old, and would make “consenting to providing or administering” gender affirming care “to a person” illegal. It would define the crime as “gender disfigurement” and would provide a 5-year prison sentence for those who violate it.

The bill contains a broad array of terrifying provisions for transgender people and their families. The most troubling is the inclusion of the phase “consenting to” in its ban on gender affirming care. Although the phrase is likely to target adult caregivers to trans youth, because the age of the ban was raised to 21, it could conceivably target trans adults 18-21 years old consenting to their own care. Bills with trans bans are being released in several states with language that is overly broad and extremely restrictive towards transgender people. See the exact provision here:

Section 2 of Mississippi Bill B1258

Although the bill seems like it may be meant to target parents of trans youth for consenting to medical care, 18 years of age is old enough to consent to medical treatments under Mississippi law. It is conceivable that an overzealous prosecutor could consider the trans person consenting to care for themselves as “consenting to administering gender affirming care to a person under 21.” Many transgender people turn to the black market to obtain their hormone therapy in places where laws are especially restrictive. Should a bill like this pass in Mississippi, it seems likely that the number of trans people obtaining gender affirming care in this way would increase. If prosecutors are not content with the effect of the bill in stopping trans people under 21 from obtaining hormone therapy, it could be interpreted and weaponized against the transgender people themselves.

That is not nearly the only cruel part of this bill. While a majority of bills simply target doctors, this bill targets anyone who cares for a transgender person including the trans person’s own parents. The bill states that consenting to or assisting in administering puberty blockers or hormone therapy is against the law under this bill. That would mean that parents of trans kids could not travel across state lines to obtain their medication. They would not be able to give their medication to their trans youth within the state of Mississippi. This bans gender affirming care for trans youth with criminal penalties for parents. It could be used to jail parents simply for following best medical guidelines and affirming their trans youth.

If that provision were not enough, the Mississippi bill adds a second provision that would further define this care as child abuse:

Child abuse provision

This portion of the bill would target the parents of trans youth with the removal of their children and would charge them with child abuse for allowing their trans youth to obtain gender affirming care. The crime carries a penalty of 5-10 years under Mississippi law and would result in a removal of the children from the household. It is extremely cruel to imagine a trans child ripped from the arms of a supportive parent and forced into a foster system where they will be forcibly medically detransitioned and their parent will locked away. That is exactly what this kind of bill purports to do for doing nothing more than following best practice medical guidelines for trans youth and giving them a loving household.

Virtually all major medical organizations support gender affirming care for trans youth including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association. Gender affirming care has been shown to have a 73% reduction in the risk of suicidality according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Another article found a 40% reduction in suicide attempts in a sample size of 9,000 trans youth. Another released during the same month as the previous two found substantial improvements in mental health. A recent study showed that the mental health improvements of gender affirming care are lasting. Meanwhile, those placed into the foster system have a 3-5x increased chance of suicide. Bills like this would harm transgender youth and would absolutely result in a loss of life.

In 2022, Texas attempted to use existing laws to target the caregivers of transgender people with child abuse. The Child Protective Services was weaponized against the families of trans people and several came under investigation. Several families attempted to flee Texas. Some transgender people even attempted to take their lives. One family had to drive their suicidal trans teen to the Oklahoma border as a result of the law in order to obtain mental health treatment.

This is also not the first time that we have seen laws that could be interpreted to ban care occurring outside of the borders of the state. Idaho’s house passed a bill that made it illegal to take trans teens out of the state for treatment - the bill failed in the senate there. This tactic has also been fronted in anti-abortion bill proposals. Missouri saw a proposal to ban people leaving to obtain abortions out of state.

Regardless of how the provisions in this bill are interpreted, the bottom line is that the bill would ban gender affirming care for anyone under 21 year old. People who have been medically transitioning would be forced to stop. Those on puberty blockers would be forcibly withdrawn from them and forced to undergo the wrong puberty. Those on hormone therapy could see their hormone therapy banned and experience a forced medical detransition. These anti-trans bills are exceedingly cruel. Given the margin that the previous anti-trans bill had on the Mississippi house floor, this bill could potentially pass there as well. These bills must be stopped to prevent further damage to our vulnerable trans population in these states.