Advocates: Ban on reassignment surgery for minors would have broad impact on NH health care
Apr. 26—CONCORD — Alice Wade, a transgender woman from Dover in her 20s, said she had to go to Washington to have gender reassignment surgery last summer, and the follow-up services she received at a local hospital here were "laughable."
Wade and many transgender activists said that passing legislation to ban these procedures for anyone under 18 would harm the entire LGBTQ+ community.
"New Hampshire needs to improve when it comes to trans health care, and bills like this will make it harder," Wade testified during a hearing last week on the House-passed ban HB 619.
State Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry, said the prohibition is appropriate because of the risks and experimental nature of the surgeries, especially on young people.
Layon noted state law does not allow a minor to use a tanning bed until they turn 18.
"I want people to be their authentic selves, but minors having this surgery is a disservice to parents and to minors," Layon said.
If the bill becomes law, New Hampshire would join 23 states that outlaw gender reassignment surgery for minors.
Transgender people like Wade have left the state to get the surgery where it was legal and available.
A coalition of health care organizations also spoke out against the legislation, which would contain the first provision in New Hampshire law to block physicians from making a medical referral, presumably in this case to an out-of-state provider who could perform the surgery.
Those organizations included the New Hampshire Hospital Association, National Alliance for Mental Illness, NAMI New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Medical Society and New Futures, a public health advocacy group.
Dr. Keith Loud, director of the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, said it's already hard to attract medical professionals to perform specialized procedures even without such proposed laws.
"Bills like this have a chilling effect on the ability to recruit and retain highly skilled individuals," Loud told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Becky Whitley, D-Hopkinton, a candidate for Congress, said she found the ban on referrals the most troubling.
"Why in this one case are we legislating the practice of medicine?" Whitley asked Layon at one point.
Layon said the state has created guardrails for some medical practices, including a ban on conversion therapy for gay people.
Chris Erchull, a lawyer with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) said a report from the Journal of the American Medical Association found from 2016-2021 there were 101 gender reassignment surgeries for minors under 18 in the U.S., about 20 a year.
Often this was a vaginoplasty for a 17-year-old trans person so the surgery and recovery was complete before the minor headed off to college, Erchull said.
"This targets a class of people and denies them access to treatment," he said. "It is unconstitutional to single out a group of people for treatment under the law."
Under the bill, minors could still have surgeries if needed to correct a "malformation, malignancy, injury or physical disease." Surgery would also be permitted for sex development disorders or circumcision of males.
The House passed the bill last January, 199-175. The vote was not along party lines.
House Republicans backed it, 186-2.
Rep. Dan Hynes, a Bedford Republican who changed to independent before later resigning from the House, also voted against the bill.
House Democrats opposed it, 172-11.
