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The House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would criminalize gender reassignment surgery for minors.
The measure, sponsored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., passed by a vote of 216-211 some bipartisan support.
Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) and Don Davis (DN.C.) were the most Republicans to vote for the bill, while Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) and Mike Kennedy (R-Utah) were the most Democrats to vote against the measure.
“Children are NOT experiments. No more drugs. No more surgeries. No more permanent damage. We must let children grow up without being manipulated by adults into making life-changing decisions! Congress must protect America’s children!!!” Greene wrote on X before the vote.
The measure, sponsored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, passed by a vote of 216-211. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Greene had reached an agreement with House leadership to bring up her bill in exchange for supporting a rule advancing the National Defense Authorization Act last week.
Senate passage of the bill faces a significant hurdle as Republicans would need Democratic support to pass the legislation in the upper house.
The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the House passagethe measure “would have an immediate and devastating impact on the lives of transgender youth and their families across the country.”
“Politicians should never prohibit parents from doing what is best for their transgender children,” Mike Zamore, national director of policy and government affairs at the ACLU, said in a statement. “These families often spend years considering how best to support their children, only to be intervened by ill-equipped politicians who seek to criminalize the health care they, their children and their doctors believe is necessary for their children to thrive.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had reached an agreement with House leadership to bring up her bill in exchange for her support last week of a rule advancing the National Defense Authorization Act. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“But this bill also sets an incredibly dangerous precedent that goes far beyond specific care, criminalizing care based on ideology and putting Washington politicians between families and their doctors,” he continued. “We strongly condemn the passage of this measure and urge members of the Senate to do everything in their power to prevent it from ever becoming law.”
Greene and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas argued before the bill’s passage. The Georgia congresswoman, who will resign next month, had criticized Roy, who sits on the House Rules Committee, for introducing an amendment that she said would “eviscerate the Commerce Clause.”
Roy’s amendment sought to amend the bill to limit federal criminal liability in certain circumstances “by defining when prohibited conduct falls within federal jurisdiction,” according to the Rules Committee.
The ACLU criticized the House’s passage, saying the measure “would have an immediate and devastating impact on the lives of transgender youth and their families across the country.” (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But Greene claimed that her bill “criminalizes ALL pediatric gender-affirming treatment (transgender surgery, puberty blockers and hormones), NOT just those receiving federal funds, and protects ALL children by allowing them to grow up before making permanent changes to their bodies that they can never undo!!!”
“What is Chip Roy doing????? And this guy wants to be Attorney General of Texas but refuses to protect children??!!!” she wrote on X.
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Roy responded, “The Constitution is important and we should not pervert it to use ‘interstate commerce’ to strengthen federal agencies.”
The Texas RepublicanHowever, he said in a statement Wednesday that he would not offer the amendment “to avoid any confusion about how united Republicans are in protecting children from these grotesque procedures.”
