Today, with an 11-2 vote, the House Health and Human Services Committee advanced House Bill 1080, legislation that would prohibit doctors from providing life-saving gender-affirming care to transgender South Dakotans.
The ACLU of South Dakota opposes HB 1080. Medical decisions should be made between patients (and their parents) and their doctors – not politicians. By blocking medical care supported by every major medical association, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, the legislature is compromising the health of trans youth in dangerous and potentially life-threatening ways.
“If House Bill 1080 passes, the state will be interfering in the relationship between doctors and their patients,” said Samantha Chapman, ACLU of South Dakota advocacy manager. “Like all health care, health care for transgender youth is individualized and based on the needs of each particular person. This bill would take away private health care choices around the provision of medical care consistent with prevailing medical and scientific standards, and will result in devastating impacts to the mental health of transgender South Dakotans. Medical professionals, not politicians, should decide what medical care is in the best interest of a patient.”
HB 1080 continues the streak of bills that would codify discrimination against transgender youth that the South Dakota Legislature has attempted to pass over the last seven years.
About the ACLU of South Dakota
The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of civil liberties and civil rights. The ACLU of South Dakota is part of a three-state chapter that also includes North Dakota and Wyoming. The team in South Dakota is supported by staff in those states.
The ACLU believes freedoms of press, speech, assembly, and religion, and the rights to due process, equal protection and privacy, are fundamental to a free people. In addition, the ACLU seeks to advance constitutional protections for groups traditionally denied their rights, including people of color, women, and the LGBTQ+ and Two Spirit communities. The ACLU of South Dakota carries out its work through selective litigation, lobbying at the state and local level, and through public education and awareness of what the Bill of Rights means for the people of South Dakota.
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