Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is overseeing a campaign to prevent young people from undergoing transition-related healthcare such as hormone blockers and sex reassignment surgery.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo urged the Florida Board of Medicine on Thursday to stop providing transition care for children and adolescents, a request he said was based on “a lack of conclusive evidence and the high risk for long-term, irreversible harms from these treatments.”
“While some professional organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society, recommend these treatments for ‘gender-affirming’ care, the scientific evidence supporting these complex medical interventions is extraordinarily weak,” Ladapo said Thursday.
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Ladapo issued a series of guidelines in April deterring gender transition procedures for children and adolescents. The state Health Department’s guidelines also discouraged social gender transitions, such as name, pronoun, and clothing changes, puberty blockers, and hormone treatments for people younger than 18, as well as encouraging social support by peers and family and counseling from a licensed provider.
Meanwhile, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration determined Thursday that the state Medicaid program, which provides health coverage for many poor people in the state, should not cover transition-related services meant to treat gender dysphoria, the emotional distress caused by misalignment of a person’s gender identity and biological sex. Officials at the agency determined that “the research supporting sex reassignment treatment is insufficient to demonstrate efficacy and safety.”
“Considering the weak evidence supporting the use of puberty suppression, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures when compared to the stronger research demonstrating the permanent effects they cause, these treatments do not conform to [generally accepted professional medical standards] and are experimental and investigational,” the AHCA said.
Thursday’s actions clear the way for DeSantis to fulfill his administration’s goals without requiring input from the state legislature. They also represent the Republican governor’s full-throated rejection of the Biden administration’s push for equitable healthcare access for LGBT people. DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education Act into law in March, expanding parental education rights and banning classroom instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade. The legislation set off a firestorm of controversy between the Republican administration and LGBT activist groups, medical professionals, celebrities, and even Disney World.
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But DeSantis is just one of many GOP leaders to clash with the federal government on the issue of transition-related healthcare. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, for instance, delivered a nonbinding legal opinion in February saying that administering transition procedures to children constituted abuse. Gov. Greg Abbott then issued a directive for state child welfare officials to launch child abuse investigations into reports of transgender children receiving transition care.
