Wyoming governor, Gov. Mark Gordon, signed legislation on Friday prohibiting gender reassignment surgery and gender-affirming care for minors.
The bill joins 23 other states that are restricting gender-affirming treatment.
Moreover, the bill would impose sanctions on pharmacists, doctors, and other healthcare professionals who would provide gender reassignment to minors, with the possibility of revoking their licenses or banning them from practicing in the state.
Gordon quipped that the bill intends to protect minors but also emphasized that there is a need to set limitations to prevent the government from encroaching on family matters.
“I signed SF99 because I support the protections this bill includes for children; however, it is my belief that the government is straying into the personal affairs of families,” Gordon remarked.
“Our legislature needs to sort out its intentions with regard to parental rights. While it inserts governmental prerogative in some places, it affirms parental rights in others.”
Meanwhile, State Senator Anthony Bouchard, who authored the bill, emphasized that the legislation would ban the use of pharmaceuticals in changing “normal adolescent development.”
Bouchard emphasized that research on gender treatments is not well studied, and its long-term effects, especially on minors, are not well studied yet.
Gov. Gordon also vetoed an abortion bill that would require abortion clinics to acquire licensing as outpatient surgical centers.
The governor argued that this will add to costs and burdens, which will make it more difficult for abortion clinics to operate.
Wyoming was among the last 14 states where abortion is legal. This bill was targeting the state’s only full-service abortion clinic, Wellspring Health Access.
Gordon argued that “the state is closer than ever to a decision on the constitutionality of abortion in Wyoming.”
Last year, the governor signed into law legislation that would prohibit the use of abortion pills. However, Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens put the bill on hold.
Judge Owens then sent the case to the State Supreme Court to decide
Almost the same time as last year, Wyoming also ruled to ban transwomen from competing in women’s sports.
The state joins 18 other states who opposed biological males from entering girl’s sports.
The bill bans “students of the male sex from competing on a team designated for students of the female sex.”
This will apply to students in Grades 7 to 12 who join in interscholastic sports.
The new law on gender-affirming care in Wyoming will take effect on July 1. But a verdict from the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit on Oklahoma’s gender correction ban will affect Wyoming’s new law.
