A new Heritage Foundation study reports that state policies facilitating minors’ access to gender-related medical interventions is, contrary to what is frequently claimed, associated with higher rates of suicide.

In the United States, 33 states and Washington, D.C., allow minors to access medical care without parental consent. These provisions do not fall along partisan lines, and they were originally put into place before gender transitioning became a hot-button issue. Heritage’s study found that around 2010, when transition-related interventions became more readily available, states with provisions allowing minors to access healthcare without parental or guardian consent had higher rates of suicide among young people than other states. By contrast, a similar increase in suicides was not found among individuals over the age of 18 during this time period, who would have been unaffected by these policies.