Florida Medical Board Willing to Ban Treatment of Transgender Minors

The Florida medical board approved the initiation of the process to ban gender-affirming treatments for minors, a decision in line with the opposition shown by the governor of that state, Republican Ron DeSantis , against these therapies for transgender minors.

After a public hearing held in Fort Lauderdale, the fifteen members of the Florida Board of Medicine approved to start the process that will lead to the prohibition of the application of hormones and surgeries to treat the so-called gender dysphoria in minors, they report this Saturday local media.

At Friday's hearing, the medical board also agreed to require adults undergoing such treatments to wait 24 hours and sign a written consent.

The decision drew rejection and angry protests from some of those attending the hearing, many of them young people who received these treatments before the age of 18.

“The medical treatment I received when I was a minor was integral in helping me get out of my depression and become the happy and healthy person I am today,” Caleb confessed in the session, who at the age of 11 began his process of reassignment of genre, as reported by the local Miami channel WSVN.

One woman even had to be removed from the room after angrily recriminating the members of this board, to whom she pointed out that their decision will leave many minors homeless.

The medical board put the issue on the agenda after receiving a request from the state health department, which says there is not enough research to show these procedures are safe.

“I'm going to vote (for) us to start making rules, because I think this is very, very important,” Dr. Patrick Hunter, a board member, said at the audience, while Michael Haller, a professor and chief of endocrinology University of Florida Pediatrics, who testified during the hearing, called the proposal a “political maneuver.”

“This board of medical professionals who were appointed by the governor approved a rule-making process that is essentially the precursor to ending gender-affirming care for our children along with restricting gender-affirming care for adults,” he said. after the vote, state congresswoman Anna Eskamani, of the Democratic Party.

The decision comes a day after DeSantis suspended Hillsborough County State's Attorney Andrew Warren, who had expressed his support for these treatments, in addition to his rejection of the new Florida law that prohibits abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

In his order, the governor alluded to pronouncements signed by several prosecutors across the country, including Warren, who promised to use prosecutorial discretion in gender-affirming cases.

This same week, during a press conference, DeSantis expressed his rejection of gender-affirming treatments and pointed out that doctors who perform this type of surgical procedure should be prosecuted.