Photo: Alamy
The Oklahoma State Senate passed a bill earlier this month that would officially ban healthcare providers from allowing a minor to undergo gender transition surgery, according to a report from Just the News.
The bill, SB 613, also provides for administrative, criminal, and civil enforcement.
According to the Senate floor version of the bill, the gender transition procedures that would be explicitly prohibited would include but not be limited to “physician’s services, inpatient and outpatient hospital services, or prescribed drugs related to gender transition that seeks to” alter or remove physical/anatomical features of the body, instill physiological characteristics, distribute puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, and so forth.
Per Just the News, physicians caught violating the ban would be fined up to $100,000 and face felony charges.
The bill is reminiscent of one recently signed in South Dakota by Governor Kristi Noem, R-S.D. As reported by RSBN, HB 1080 banned doctors in South Dakota from prescribing puberty blockers and performing gender transition surgeries on minors.
“South Dakota’s kids are our future,” Noem said in a statement. “I am signing HB 1080 to protect our kids from harmful, permanent medical procedures. I will always stand up for the next generation of South Dakotans.”
While the bill in Oklahoma has passed the Senate, it still faces a vote in the State House. If it passes there, it will move to the desk of Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R).
This latest move toward legislating a halt to underage gender transition surgery comes amid President Donald Trump’s recent policy pitch in his 2024 presidential campaign.
Via RSBN, Trump has promised to sign a new executive order if elected president again that will instruct federal agencies to cease all programs that promote “the concept of sex and gender transition at any age.”
