Medical Care for Transgender Teens is Under Assault in America

Almost daily there’s a new headline about yet another state legislature attempting to limit transgender teens’ access to healthcare. In fact, in 2023 alone more than 550 anti-equality pieces of legislation were introduced; of these 220 were specifically anti-transgender.

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“If and when teenagers should be allowed to undergo transgender treatments and surgeries has become a raging debate within the political world.” – The New York Times, June 25, 2024

 

Today, approximately 39% of American transgender teens ages 13-17 live in one of the 25 states that have passed or enacted bans limiting gender-affirming care. 

 

With more than 300,000 transgender teens in the United States, according to The Williams Institute, that means approximately 105,000 high school aged youth are being denied the basic right to access the critical medical care needed to treat their gender dysphoria and related distress.

 

“Gender-affirming health care saved my life and the idea of losing it terrifies me.” – transgender male “Ryan Roe,” 15, as quoted in the brief for United States v. Skrmetti
 

The collective impact of these state bans has had dramatic effects on transgender people and their families, forcing many families to consider life-changing moves to new states in order to access appropriate medical treatment for their children. As a result of anti-transgender legislation, according to the Human Rights Campaign, anti-LGBTQ+ bias in America is on the rise.

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Beyond this, doctors face hurdles in providing proper care for their patients. An Idaho state law makes it a felony for doctors to provide medical treatment to transgender patients under the age of 18, including hormone therapy.