MTG gender-affirming care felony bill

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced a bill Friday that would make providing gender-affirming medical care to transgender minors a felony, punishable by up to 25 years in prison.

Greene’s “Protect Children’s Innocence Act” outlaws more than a dozen medical interventions and procedures used to treat gender dysphoria in transgender young people, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and certain kinds of surgeries done “for the purpose of changing the body of such individual to correspond to a sex that differs from their biological sex.”

The measure would also prohibit using federal funds for gender-affirming health care, including in Affordable Healthcare Act plans.

“When it comes to ‘gender-affirming care,’ which is really child abuse, this is actually an assault and it’s child abuse,” Greene said Thursday evening during an appearance on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Under Greene’s bill, anyone who “knowingly performs any gender-affirming care on a minor” is guilty of a class C felony, carrying a punishment of 10 to 25 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, Greene’s office said.

The measure is similar to a first-of-its-kind Alabama law passed earlier this year that makes it a felony, punishable by up to a decade in prison, for doctors or others to assist transgender youth younger than 19 in accessing gender-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers or hormone therapy.

Greene’s bill would also prohibit institutions of higher education from providing instruction on gender-affirming care and bar doctors that have provided gender-affirming care to a minor from receiving visas or being admitted to the U.S.

Greene’s bill has 11 Republican cosponsors so far: Reps. Mary Miller (Ill.), Jeff Duncan (S.C.), Bob Good (Va.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Tony Gonzales (Texas), Rep. Diana Harshbarger (Tenn.), Clay Higgins (La.), Burgess Owens (Utah), Claudia Tenney (N.Y.) and Andrew Clyde (Ga.).

Greene on Friday tweeted that two Republican U.S. Senate candidates – J.D. Vance of Ohio and Blake Masters of Arizona – have promised to support her bill if they are elected.