U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) has made it clear that she opposes a Wisconsin legislative bill that bans genital and other surgeries on transgender children, including castration and sterilization.
Baldwin made her stance clear when she thanked Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers for promising to veto “every single one of them,” referring to legislative bills relating to transgender surgeries and transgender participation in girls’ and women’s sports. “I’ll help you stop it,” Evers said in the video.
Baldwin applauded this.
“Trans kids deserve to feel safe and welcome in Wisconsin, not discriminated against. They deserve the freedom to just be kids, play sports, and get the health care they need, all without politicians butting in. Thanks for standing up for LGBTQ+ kids, @GovEvers,” she wrote on X.
Trans kids deserve to feel safe and welcome in Wisconsin, not discriminated against. They deserve the freedom to just be kids, play sports, and get the health care they need, all without politicians butting in. Thanks for standing up for LGBTQ+ kids, @GovEvers. https://t.co/jNiYdcygNP
— Sen. Tammy Baldwin (@SenatorBaldwin) October 5, 2023
By “health care,” she is referring to genital surgeries, mastectomies, hormone therapies, and puberty blockers that can affect fertility and bone density as that’s what is in the bill Evers wants to veto.
Wisconsin Right Now previously reported that more than 260 juveniles received puberty blockers or hormone therapy in recent years from two major Wisconsin hospitals, and up to 15 juveniles underwent breast surgeries every year – in most cases mastectomies – because of “gender dysphoria.” The hospitals do not perform genital surgeries on minors currently, but the Republican bill that Baldwin opposes would ensure they can not.
What does the bill say?
“A health care provider may not engage in, cause the engagement in, or make a referral for, any of the following practices upon a minor for the purpose of changing the minor’s body to correspond to a sex that is discordant with the minor’s biological sex:
(a) Performing a surgery that sterilizes an individual, including castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, metoidioplasty, orchiectomy, penectomy, phalloplasty, and vaginoplasty.
(b) Performing a mastectomy.
(c) Administering, prescribing, or supplying any of the following medications:
1. Puberty-blocking drugs to stop or delay normal puberty.
2. Supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or other androgens to biological females.
3. Supraphysiologic doses of estrogen to biological males.
(d) Removing any otherwise healthy or non-diseased body part or tissue.
“This bill prohibits health care providers from engaging in, causing the engagement in, or making referrals for, certain medical intervention practices upon an individual under 18 years of age if done for the purpose of changing the minor’s body to correspond to a sex that is discordant with the minor’s biological sex,” according to a memo from the Legislative Reference Bureau.
According to a poll of 2,500 registered voters across the U.S, only 31% are in favor of medical interventions such as gender-changing surgery or puberty blockers for children younger than 18 years old.
As for the second bill, author state Rep. Barb Dittrich said in a press release, “The ‘Save Women’s Sports Act’ protects the athletic excellence of girls and women competing in sports, while also upholding Title IX’s original intent based on the general biological distinction between men and women athletes based on sex. The bills introduced today would afford three categories of sports competition based on person’s biological sex with an additional co-ed category allowing for all to participate.”
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