Information: ACLU Map: Alice Feng/Axios

Politicians in red states are putting new limits on gender-affirming care for transgender persons, developing a patchwork of sanctions on well being providers who offer you such solutions and limits on access.

By the numbers: More than one hundred pieces of legislation introduced in state legislatures in 2023 concentrate on banning elements of gender-affirming health-related care, according to information from the American Civil Liberties Union.

• Proponents of the measures have characterized gender-affirming care as “dangerous” and “experimental” health-related procedures. But such care has been deemed medically required and potentially life-saving for transgender youths by top health-related associations, such as the American Health-related Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

State of play: Utah in January enacted a law banning gender-affirming well being care for transgender youth. Given that then, Mississippi, South Dakota and Tennessee have followed suit.

• Arkansas in 2021 became the initially state to make gender-affirming care for sufferers below 18 illegal, but the ban is becoming challenged in court. A related law in Alabama is also on hold.
• Arizona in 2022 enacted a law prohibiting gender-affirming care from becoming supplied to trans persons below 18. That law is set to take impact in March.
• Florida final year became the initially state to enact a ban by way of a non-legislative physique, employing a health-related board appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Legal authorities worry it could set a precedent for restrictions on other types of well being care.
• Florida Republicans turned to executive action from DeSantis — who has openly opposed gender-affirming care for minors — following a legislative try failed, per legal authorities.
• In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive ordering state agencies to investigate parents for kid abuse for searching for gender-affirming care for their trans little ones.

Reality verify: 71% of LGBTQ youth — such as 86% of trans and nonbinary youth — say that debate about state restrictions on LGBTQ young persons has negatively impacted their mental well being, according to a poll by The Trevor Project, which delivers crisis intervention and suicide prevention solutions to LGBTQ youth.

Amongst the lines: Most anti-trans bills appear to prohibit gender-affirming care for persons below 18, but some states have introduced measures that extend to adults.

• Kansas, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas have bills moving by way of their legislatures to ban care for persons below 21. Texas also has a proposed ban for persons below 26.

Zoom in: Texas and Wyoming have bans that also categorize gender-affirming care as kid abuse below state law.

What else is taking place: Lawmakers in states like Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma have introduced bills prohibiting the use of state funds to spend for gender-affirming health-related care, as effectively as barring insurers from providing coverage.

What they are saying: Opponents say the measures impose restrictions on the medical doctor-patient partnership.

• “Choices about transgender health-related care should really be in between trans sufferers, their households, and their physicians — not produced by politicians,” mentioned Kasey Suffredini, vice president of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project.

Meanwhile… Lawmakers in at least 21 states are functioning on “trans refugee laws” that would let out-of-state sufferers to seek gender-affirming care inside their borders to prevent criminal prosecution, mentioned Elliot Imse, executive director of LGBTQ Victory Institute, an advocacy group functioning with state lawmakers across the U.S.

Beneath are prominent anti-trans well being care curbs in the 2023 legislative cycle.

Anti-trans well being care bills that have been enacted

Arkansas: SB 199 tends to make it less difficult to sue well being providers who deliver gender-affirming care to a minor, correctly bringing back the state’s blocked ban.

Mississippi: HB 1125 states that well being providers can not offer you gender-affirming surgeries, puberty blockers or hormone therapy to trans youth below 18. If a provider violates the law, they could shed their license and face civil lawsuits.

South Dakota: Beneath HB 1080, a well being care provider can not offer you gender-affirming care “for the goal of attempting to alter the look of, or to validate a minor’s perception of, the minor’s sex.”

• A health-related provider dangers shed their license, as effectively as threat civil action, if they deliver this form of car or truck to trans youth.

Tennessee: SB 1 says that a well being provider can not “execute or offer you to execute” any sort of gender-affirming care to trans minors. Performing so puts a provider at threat of lawsuits from the minor, their guardian or the state lawyer basic.

Utah: SB 16 especially prohibits well being care providers in the state from performing gender-affirming surgeries on trans youth and areas an indefinite moratorium on their access to hormone therapy and puberty blockers.

Go deeper: Axios Explains: Gender-affirming care in the U.S.