It is now a crime in Idaho to provide gender-affirming care to transgender youth

Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a bill into law Tuesday that makes it a felony to provide certain types of medical care to children and teens.

House Bill 71 criminalizes gender-affirming health care for youth who have gender dysphoria. The bill specifically bans puberty blockers and hormones for patients under age 18. It also bans surgeries, which already do not fall within Idaho’s standard of care for transgender youth and are not performed in Idaho.

“In signing this bill, I recognize our society plays a role in protecting minors from surgeries or treatments that can irreversibly damage their healthy bodies. However, as policymakers we should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children,” Little said in his transmittal letter.

“This bill is aptly named the Vulnerable Child Protection Act because it seeks to protect children with gender dysphoria from medical and surgical interventions that can cause permanent damage to their bodies before they are mature enough to make such serious health decisions,” he wrote in the letter.

As the bill made its way through the Idaho Legislature, health care providers and transgender youth and their parents noted that withholding gender-affirming care also causes permanent changes: a child’s body goes through puberty. Those changes can amplify the distress caused by gender dysphoria, they said.

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