Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, has vetoed a bill that was meant to protect children from transgender gender-change surgeries and other procedures like giving kids cross-sex hormones.
"If HB 648 doesn't become law, we will be sending a horrible message to our children," Louisiana state Sen. Jeremy Stine, a Republican, wrote on Twitter after the bill's passage and as questions swirled around whether it would receive a veto.
In it, Edwards said the bill threatens specialists' professional licenses, removes parental rights in healthcare decisions for children with gender dysphoria, and generally amounts to a "Targeted assault" on kids suffering psychologically from a "Gender crisis."
Edwards said that there was no evidence of any gender-change surgeries being performed in Louisiana between 2017 and 2021, and argued that supporters of the bill suggested it was "Necessary to stop physicians from mutilating our children by performing gruesome sex change surgeries."
"This is simply not happening in Louisiana," he said, arguing that the bill sought to address a non-existent problem of sex reassignment surgeries in the state while in actual fact blocking access to "Necessary" medication and other less invasive medical interventions for children suffering from gender dysphoria.
"I can even agree with that prohibition in this bill," Edwards said of the bill's provisions to ban transgender surgeries, while adding that, "Unfortunately, that is not the intent of this bill and seemed to be included for dramatic effect to overshadow the medically appropriate use of puberty blockers and hormone replacements."
With Edwards' veto, the current regulations in Louisiana on transgender procedures for children remain unchanged.
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