A Louisiana lawmaker wants to prohibit anyone under 18 from receiving gender-affirming health care. Rep. Gabe Firment (R-Grant Parish) filed a similar bill last year, but then withdrew it and filed a study resolution for the state health department instead.
Firment said many of the procedures are experimental, "and can result in really serious problems like sterilization, cancer, heart disease, loss of bone density, not to mention really severe psychological problems."
However, the study released last month is limited to Medicaid recipients, and does not indicate the adverse outcomes Firment referred to.
When asked if he has spoken with physicians who perform such procedures, the Republican insurance consultant said he hass only talked to doctors who are opposed to gender reassignment.
"Understand how harmful they are to children and have even pointed out that oftentimes autistic children suffer from these situations and these procedures are performed on autistic children at a much, much higher rate," Firment claimed.
Firment said in the past year, the public has learned more about the dangers of such procedures. He says he is confident the legislation will pass this session.
"The public understands that pumping kids full of hormones or puberty blockers or allowing them to remove healthy reproductive organs is really evil," said Firment.
