A Maryland bill with bipartisan support aims to prohibit medical intervention on youth who identify as "transgender" without parental consent.
Maryland currently allows children as young as 12 to consent to medical procedures without parental knowledge or consent.
The proposed legislation, House Bill 722, has 15 Republican co-sponsors and three Democrats.
Democrats supporting the bill are Sheree Sample-Hughes, Gary Simmons, and Kym Taylor.
The text of the bill states that its purpose is "prohibiting a health care provider from knowingly engaging in or causing certain medical or surgical procedures to be performed on a minor without the consent of the parent, guardian, or custodian of the minor if performed for the purpose of attempting to alter the appearance of, or affirm the minor’s perception of, the minor’s gender or sex and the appearance or perception is inconsistent with the minor’s sex, except under certain circumstances; and generally relating to gender and sex transition procedures and minors."
The bill would prohibit doctors and medical professionals from prescribing sex-change hormones and puberty blockers, performing any surgeries that would "sterilize" the minor, attempting to create cross-sex genitalia, or removing "any healthy or nondiseased body part or tissue."
The Blaze reports, "The bill does allow a handful of exceptions, including for minors with a 'medically verifiable disorder of sex development,' those who have already been mutilated by previous gender-related medical interventions, and those who have sustained a catastrophic injury or illness that requires emergency surgery to prevent death or 'major bodily' impairment."
The bill was introduced by Republican Delegate Lauren Arikan to "ensure the protection of minors from life-altering, permanent medical procedures that have not been proven as necessary or helpful in the treatment of gender dysphoria."
"Still, the measure has a long way to go before it could become law in Maryland. The Health and Government Operations Committee was scheduled to consider the measure shortly after it was introduced in the House. The outcome of that committee meeting is unclear," the report added.
Many have noted that the bipartisan support, even if small, in a deep blue state may be signaling sex changes for minors beginning to fall out of political favor.
