Kansas GOP overrides veto, passing a ban on gender-affirming care for minors

• Kansas Republicans have passed a bill to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors. The vote overrode the Democratic governor’s veto.
• Under Senate Bill 63, minors cannot get puberty blockers, hormone treatments or gender-affirming surgeries.
• The bill also prohibits state funds from being used for the health care practice.

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Transgender minors in Kansas may soon lose options for care, including hormone treatments and surgeries. Republican lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto Tuesday, Feb. 18, to ban gender-affirming health care into law.

On Feb. 12, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed Senate Bill 63, also known as the “Help Not Harm Act,” banning hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender-affirming surgery for minors.
However, the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature rallied the two-thirds majorities needed to override Kelly.

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In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order attempting to end federal support for gender transition care for people under the age of 19.

Kansas was one of the few states where Republicans had control of the Legislature but had no law regarding transgender care for youths.

In a joint statement, Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins, both Republicans, said they voted Tuesday “in honor of the children Governor Kelly failed to protect with her repeated vetoes of this sensible legislation.”

They called gender-affirming care “harmful, irreversible, and experimental.”

Major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, that support gender-affirming care for minors say it is medically necessary and can be lifesaving.

How is Gov. Kelly responding to the veto?

Kelly responded to the veto override in a statement saying it was “inappropriate that the Legislature dictate to parents how to best raise their children.”

“It is unfortunate that the first bill the Legislature sent me this session is focused on putting politicians between Kansans and their private medical decisions instead of prioritizing solutions to issues like rising prices and the cost of groceries, which would benefit everyone,” Kelly said. “This divisive bill will undoubtedly have ripple effects that harm Kansas families, our businesses, and our economy and intensify our workforce shortage issue.”

Last year in Ohio, lawmakers overrode Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill limiting gender-affirming health care for minors. A court later upheld the law.

Before the ban, families of transgender minors who lived in states with bans had been traveling to Ohio for treatment.

What are the repercussions for doctors who break the law?

Under Kansas’ Senate Bill 63, health care providers who break the law by performing surgery or providing hormones or puberty blockers to children who identify as a gender that is different from their assigned sex at birth will have their license taken away.

The bill also prohibits the use of state funds for psychological treatment for transgender children.

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What happens next?

The law is written so that it takes effect within days or weeks and requires transgender teens in Kansas to end any ongoing treatments by the end of the year.

State Rep. Brandon Woodard, Democratic House minority leader, told reporters he hopes litigation can intervene and block the law from taking effect right away.